
Class 
Book 






i^;. i 



Goipght N" 



COPKRIGHT DEPOSIT. 




OUR SEEMING DIFFICULTIES ARE ALWAYS ACCOMPLISHED WHEN WE ARE 
FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT AND HAVE AN ABIDING FAITH IN THE POWER 
OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 



MORTALS 

AND 

IMMORTALITY 



Eternal Life Inherited. 



Bv 
THOMAS DENNISON HIGGS. 



published by 

Franklin Hudson Publishing Company 

kansas city, mo. 






Copyrighted 1913 

By Thomas Dennison Higga 

Kansas City, Mo. 



^0 / 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

Page. 
Preface - 9 

Chapter I. 
The Creator of All Things - 15 

Chapter II. 
The Prophecy of the Messiah 30 

Chapter III. 
The New Covenant 44 

Chapter IV. 
Fulfillment of the Prophecies of the Messiah — 57 

Chapter V. 
The Prophecies of the Messiah Showing the Divine 
Side and the Human Side of Jesus Christ 68 

Chapter VI. 
Teachings and Claims of Jesus Christ and Sending the 
Holy Spirit - - - - 86 

Chapter VII. 
Jesus Christ's Death and Resurrection 104 

Chapter VIII. 
Celsus - 114 

Chapter IX. 
Porphyry 143 

Chapter X. 
Julian 150 

Chapter XI. 
Tacitus or Suetonius .- 166 

Chapter XII. 
Adrian .185 

5 



6 MORTALS AND DJAIORTALTTY. 

Chapter XIII. 
Lucian - -. 194 

Chapter XIV. 
Epictetus -- 204 

Chapter XV. 
Titus -- 208 

Chapter XVI. 
Proof by Josephus and Other Testimony that Jesus 
Christ Established] the Christian Religion and 
that They Worshiped Him as a God 212 

Chapter XVII. 
The Talmud-. -- -A 223 

Chapter XVIII. 
Pliny's Letter to Trajan 235 

Chapter XIX. 
Correspondence between Pontius Pilate and the Em- 
peror of Rome, and Other Correspondence Rela- 
tive to Jesus Christ 243 

I/Ctter from Pilate to Herod the Tetrarch —250 

The Epistle of Pilate to the Roman Emperor, Tibe- 
rius Caesar .252 

Report of Pilate to Augustus Caesar 253 

Report of Pilate to Tiberius Caesar in Rome- ..255 

Chapter XX. 
Hillel, a Jewish Rabbi - 263 

Chapter XXI. 
St. Paul -- -- 266 

Chapter XXII. 
Polycarp 275 

Chapter XXIII. 
Eusebius Pamphili's Statement about Jesus 282 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 7 

Chapter XXIV. 
St. Ignatius 291 

Chapter XXV. 
Justin Martyr 294 

Chapter XXVI. 
Papias - 299 

Chapter XXVII. 
Origen- - 302 

Chapter XXVIII. 

Simeon — - - — 308 

Chapter XXIX. 
Love -310 

Chapter XXX. 
Will 319 

Chapter XXXI. 
Mind and Its Powers 330 

Chapter XXXII. 
Faith -352 

Chapter XXXIII. 
Eternal Life Inherited 369 

Chapter XXXIV. 
Martyrdom — - 401 

Chapter XXXV. 
Religion - 411 

Chapter XXXVI. 
The Summing Up of the Evidence that Jesus Is the 
Christ from the Admissions of His Enemies 430 



PREFACE. 

In offering this book to the pubUc the writer has no 
other object in view than to add his effort in bringing 
to the readers the many evidences and facts which have i 
come down in history to fully estabUsh in the minds of j 
humanity the coming of our Savior and His estabUshing 
the Christian religion. The writer has made no attempt 
to adhere strictly to diction or phraseology in writing, 
but has simply attempted to use the plainest language 
and construct it and put it in accordance with the most 
simple and ordinary usage and manner, so that all may 
read and fully understand it in its fullest extent. In 
writing and compiling these facts the best authorities 
have been consulted in profane as well as biblical his- 
tory, showing the correct view to be taken by those who 
are seeking eternal Hfe. 

It has been the great desire of the writer to put some 
facts before the world that every man and woman should 
know; that is, to establish beyond peradventure in the 
minds of all who will thoroughly study the question of 
the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and His religion so 
firmly that they will be induced to diligently take up 
the question of eternal life to such an extent that it will 
draw them permanently to the Lord and fill them with 
a desire to bring their wills in subjection to the will of 
their Creator. It is further hoped that all who read the 
many truths set out herein may do so with an earnest 
desire to arrive at the true facts of the situation that 
man is placed in as to his relations to his Maker and 
Savior. There have been no pretensions on the part of 
the writer to fully discuss any of the positions taken 
herein, with a view to convincing its readers of their 

9 



lo MORTALS AND IMMORTAUTY. 

truth; but he has placed them therein as being truths, 
and leaves them there for the intelligent investigation 
of the reader, believing that they will apply it to them- 
selves in the most intelligent and helpful way to assist 
them to a higher living, in that of living more closely 
to righteousness and their Savior. 

The writer well knows that many books have been 
put out before the public that have discussed Jesus Christ 
and His religion in various ways, and some from a very 
high standard of scientific reasoning; yet there has never 
been a work presented from the standpoint of His en- 
emies as well as His friends, which is contained in this 
treatise. It is a well-known fact, and must be admitted 
by everyone, that when an enemy recognizes and admits 
certain things to exist, pertaining to those whose influ- 
ence they are seeking to destroy, such admissions must 
be accepted as true. It is a rule in all evidence that 
facts admitted against yourself or the position you may 
take must be taken to be true. 

The v/riter is well aware that all those who read 
these testimonies and evidences, who have not been as- 
sociated with the Savior or His religion as followers, or 
who have not been regenerated and become imbued with 
a spiritual life, will not receive the same benefits from 
reading it as those who have had these experiences, and 
may, in looking at it from the standpoint that a man 
would who is possessed with that kind of a mind, reject 
some of the things therein stated. The writer will only 
ask of all such to pursue this subject of investigating 
the source of all eternal life into deeper fields of study, 
in that of making a thorough investigation of all that 
God has done to bring man unto Himself. 

One of the principal efforts claimed for this treatise 
is that it closely connects the present faith of the Church 



MORTALS AND IMMORTAUTY. n 

to-day with the faith of the Christian Fathers and the 
doctrine handed down by those who were associated 
with the Apostles when hving upon the earth; and to 
further fully establish the fact that the Messiah was 
promised by God, through His prophets, for about fifteen 
hundred years prior to His coming, which was accurately 
told, and following this He did come and was received 
in accordance with these prophecies; that His crucifixion 
and treatment were minutely foretold, as well as His 
death, resurrection, and the manner of treatment that 
His followers would receive, and that the same came 
true. Further, that these prophecies have all been ad- 
mitted to have been made by the most virulent and 
bitter enemies of the Savior and His religion, by their 
attempting in their supposed efforts to overthrow His 
system of rehgion. This has been full)^ shown by the 
pagan and Gentile writers, as shown in this work, and 
it is hoped that this will help you to come to a realiza- 
tion of who is the Savior. There is a further claim for 
this work, in that it shows that all of the opposers as 
well as the upholders of Jesus Christ and His religion, 
as shown herein, were men who possessed the greatest 
degree of intelligence and learning that existed in the 
world at the time that these opposition ideas were urged 
against Him. 

The writer has further attempted to show (and it is 
one of the main reasons why this book has been placed 
before the public) that Jesus Christ was treated and ac- 
knowledged by His Apostles and the Christian Fathers 
all down through the earlier centuries to be God himself. 
Who came to earth and took upon Himself the form of 
man in order to open up the way of everlasting life for 
his followers; and further, to take away that load of 
original Adamic sin from the whole race, thereby placing 



12 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

man where he could if he only would submit his will 
to God's will, and thereby making it easy for him to 
enter into a position where he would inherit eternal life. 

It has been the desire not to put anything herein 
that would be construed in any way to advance any 
particular creed or doctrine adhered to by any one of 
the Christian organizations who are endeavoring to fol- 
low in their own way Jesus Christ and His teachings, 
but to plainly show, as far as possible in the limited 
space, the importance of acknowledging the Savior as 
the Redeemer and God from Heaven. It is hoped the 
reader will have no other thought than is fully intended 
for him to get from what is set out herein, that there is 
in store eternal life by inheritance for every man and 
woman, if they only will conform their wills to God's 
will — that is, in following clearly after the open and 
plain statements of the blessed promises laid down in 
God's Holy Word. The reader must remember that he 
is required to search the Scriptures daily, in order that 
he may know his God better from day to day, enabling 
him to step up higher in the knowledge of His kingdom. 
Above all things, it is hoped that the reader may realize 
in the study of the many truths herein that the way of 
life everlasting must be sought after with the most vigil- 
ant and careful labor and perseverance; for God makes 
this a demand of us, knowing that we could not be con- 
sistent followers of our Master without great effort on 
our part. 

Should the reading of this treatise accomplish the 
bringing of one person to view God and the Lord Jesus 
Christ in the true light, as being the Benefactor of man- 
kind, and remove from him that awful doubt that lin- 
gers in the minds of many, and place him on a higher 
plain, standing on that Rock that will always sustain 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 13 

him until he reaches the goal that God has prepared 
for him from the foundation of the world, the writer will 
be amply repaid for his labors. 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 15 

CHAPTER I. 
The Creator of All Things. 

We find that man has always been ready and willing 
to believe in some imaginary or supposed Supreme Being 
or Power, but ever and always differing in regard to 
what that power consists of. The mysteries of the oper- 
ation of the economy of this world and all things known 
to mankind in the realms of space have always taxed 
the mind of man to its fullest extent. Philosophers have 
written volumes on this subject, and yet they have 
never arrived at a satisfactory and conclusive theory 
from a scientific standpoint as to what was the first 
thing that ever did exist. The reason for this is that 
this question is an unsolvable question, so far as man 
is concerned. If it were possible for man, from scien- 
tific reasoning, outside of revelation, to fully arrive at 
what was the first thing that did exist, man would be 
as great as, if not greater than, the thing so solved. 

Philosophers, in reasoning from a scientific stand- 
point, have declared that the first thing that ever ex- 
isted was Force. So you can see that in the end they 
utterly failed to arrive at any satisfactory definite con- 
clusion. Every intelligent man knows of the existence 
of the world that he is in and the environments that 
surround him. It is fully demonstrated that this world 
and all the worlds in this system are occupying space 
and traveling around in their order. We further find 
that there are many other systems of worlds performing 
the same phenomenal operations with perfect exactness 
and regularity far beyond man's comprehensive powers. 



i6 MORTALS AXD nOIORTAUTY. 

There is shown in their movements great force. This 
force is the name given in mechanical science to what- 
ever produces or can produce motion. It may consist 
of mechanical, magnetic, thermal, electrical, chemical, 
or any other kind, such as the force of gravity, adhesive 
force, centrifugal force, or whatever man is capable of 
tracing out in the phenomena of all things. They find 
where there is a cause for many kinds of forces — that is, 
from reasoning from effect to cause and from cause to 
effect; but notwithstanding these facts, there are many 
things that have force back of them that man can not 
comprehend where the force comes from. Now these 
forces that produce all these effects known to man and 
not known do conclusively show in the effects that there 
must be back of the force an intelligent Power to bring 
about the great results shown to man. This is demon- 
strated fully in the force of creation, for nothing created 
can be greater than the creator. This is an axiom well 
established in the sciences and demonstrated by the 
philosophers of all history. This being so, will the reader 
look around him and see what are some of the most 
wonderful creations that have taken place. Then, after 
you have gone over them all, you will be compelled to 
arrive at the conclusion and find that man is the great- 
est of all creations; that the creation of man, or the fact 
that man does exist upon this planet, conclusively proves 
that there is a Power back of all things which possesses 
intelligence, or no man could have the power of intelli- 
gence, for, as it has been seen, nothing greater than 
the Creator can be created, or something having dif- 
ferent power from the power inherent in the Power that 
created it. 

Let the reader for a moment study what man is, 
and he will find him possessed with the most wonderful 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. i? 

powers, which consist in reasoning, loving, thinking, and 
willing, together with the ability to bring under his sub- 
jection all things which are observable by him. Among 
the great many qualities that man possesses, some of 
the greatest are language, with a will-power and reason- 
ing power, loving power and the power of life and faith, 
all of which are endowments conferred by his Creator; 
all of which powers he possesses with as much reality as 
any of the seen or unseen forces that man has been 
capable of conceiving to exist, in the economy of this 
world. So it is fully demonstrated that the things that 
man knows to exist could not be unless brought into 
existence by some great intelligent Force or Power, the 
essence of which is beyond the powers given to man to 
comprehend. 

We will go one step farther and look at what this un- 
seen Force or Power must appear to man to possess in or- 
der to create and bring into existence all the creations of 
which man has full knowledge. The Power referred to here- 
in the enlightened Christian nations of the earth claim and 
maintain is the great Power that has revealed Himself 
to man through inspiration, using man as His agents to 
direct man in the course of life or living, so that he 
might reach the goal of perfection and live in harmony 
with his own being in that of conforming to the laws 
controlling all things which are commonly called the 
laws of Nature, and that the laws given to man by this 
Creator of all things are in His Word, in which this 
Creator has revealed Himself to man and claims that 
He is man's creator, that He created him in His image 
and in His likeness. Further, that when He created all 
things, every thing which He created was controlled or 
kept by the power of the law of its creation; that when 
the law was created governing all the environments of 



l8 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

man, as well as the things created, any violation of 
this law by man or through man's agency would bring 
destruction and death upon man. I. Corinthians 15:55- 
56: *'0 death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is 
thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength 
of sin is the law." 

Now law is a rule of order or conduct established by 
authority, an edict of a ruler or a government, or a fixed 
regulation or an express command prescribing action or 
conduct of an intelHgent being. It is an axiom of the 
law, too, that ignorance of it will excuse no one, and 
therefore everyone is bound to know the law. This rule 
is in accordance with the law of God. Thus in the be- 
ginning, when God said, ''Thou shalt not," or, "Thou 
shalt," it brought responsibihty to all the world forever. 
There can not be any disputing the proposition that 
where there is no law, sin can not be imputed ; for there 
can not be any disobedience or transgression of any kind 
where law does not exist. 

There are what the scientists call * ' fixed laws. ' ' These 
are the laws that control the movement of all the worlds 
and the hosts therein, which occupy space. These grow 
out of and consist of the movement of all things in 
space, and are called "empirical laws," that man applies 
to unseen conditions in order to draw conclusions and 
philosophies, using them to ascertain the results arising 
from their application. These laws are called "the laws 
of Nature," and they are arranged so as to produce 
method or sequence by v/hich certain phenomena or ef- 
fects follow certain conditions or causes. Thus the law 
of gravitation, a geological law, laws of physical descent, 
the uniform methods or relations to which material and 
mental forces act in producing effects, or manifested in 
the phenomena, a form or rule for the working of a reg- 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 19 

ular force; hence any force, tendency, proposition, or 
instinct, whether natural or acquired, as the laws of 
self-preservation, where they can trace regularity to, 
the scientists call that a law. The moral law is the 
will of the Christian's God. Thus the supreme moral 
rule concerning the character and conduct of all respon- 
sible beings, the rule of action as obligation and the 
conscience or moral nature; the rule of external con- 
duct, which arises from the relations of men to each 
other in society, and the mutual rights, which are founded 
on these relations. 

In the creation of man God made him a reasoning 
being, with a will-power of his own, which made him a 
free moral agent of his own destinies, placing him where 
there was no possible opportunity for him to be con- 
trolled and led astray from the path of duty without his 
voluntary consent. God giving man this will-power en- 
dowed man with a faculty which God Himself possesses, 
and placed man where God can not control man, and 
made man the great being He would have him to be. 
In fixing the goal of his destiny of eternal life and the 
privilege of occupying the celestial abode where God is, 
so that when God extended and gave to man this won- 
derful power, and man disobeyed the will of God in 
violating the laws and commands which God had en- 
vironed man with, and the commands given him being 
expressed in His Holy Word, which violation of God's 
will by man caused his fall and aHenation from God, 
so that man becomes separated from his Maker, wor- 
shiping gods of his own creation. This will hereinafter 
be more fully referred to, showing that the violation of 
God's will brings sin and death to man. 

Many writers for and against the philosophy of the 
Christian religion and the power and essence of the 



20 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

Christian's God have claimed that the Christian's God 
could not possess this power and at the same time at- 
tiibute to Him as being an anthropomorphic being, pos- 
sessing all the qualities of a man, and these pov/ers 
which are attributed to the ever-living God could not 
be invested in a being which would be in a corporeal state. 
They assert that such a God could not manifest Himself 
with matter as He might in His infinite powers desire, 
and in the way it has been attributed to Him. For this 
cause they have rejected Him; but this is untenable, as 
it has heretofore been shown that anything created can 
not have powers or qualities that are not inherent in 
the Power that created it, so that the Power which 
created a loving, thinking, reasoning being like man 
must possess all these qualities within itself. Yes, this 
creative Power has all the powers and quahties that 
mankind has, and all that man is capable of ascribing 
to Him, and many more — no doubt many wonderful 
powers that the diminutive mind of man can not think 
of. This position can be reasonably maintained without 
successful contradiction; for we all know the limitation 
of human powers. 

The Creator of all things, who has revealed Himself 
to man, as set forth in His Word, commonly called the 
Christian's Bible, teaches man that the Lord God of the 
Bible never had any beginning or ending, and that there 
never was anything created or brought into existence 
that was not created by His will or word. The facts are 
that man has not the power within himself to compre- 
hend what the first Great Cause consisted of: therefore 
man must rely upon revelation to give him the desired 
knowledge of all things necessary so that he can inherit 
eternal life. Holy Writ informs man that the first Great 
Cause (the Christian's God) has spoken to man through 



MORTALS AND BIMORTALITY. 2i 

His selected divine agencies, the holy prophets in the 
God of the Bible, and in so doing proclaims to man that 
He is a Being, calling Himself to Moses, "I am the God 
of thy father," "I am that I am"; then again, **I am 
Jehovah, with no beginning and no ending. I am a 
spirit and must be worshiped in truth and in spirit." 
The power that has created and brought into existence 
all things has been applied to the laws of His creation, 
to all of His creatures, but not to Himself. The law of 
God's existence, which is inherent in Himself (which is 
to the finite mind as unthinkable as the beginning of 
time or its ending, or the beginning or ending of space). 
The Hteral component parts of a spirit which the I^ord 
God proclaims in His Word that He is; the solving of 
which is beyond the power of man to comprehend. Thus 
you can see that the God of the Christian's Bible is a 
Being that always existed and having self -creating pow- 
ers inherent within, being an all-wise, omnipresent, in- 
finite, omnipersonal, absolute, and incomprehensible Be- 
ing, who by His will brought into existence all things, 
who preserves and governs all things by His unseen, 
omnipresent, and almighty unseen power, wisdom, and 
will through the exercising of His word. 

In the creation of this world He in His wisdom cre- 
ated man, giving him full dominion over all His other 
creations. It has been shown that He endowed him 
with the power to will his own destiny, and demand- 
ed of him the submission of his (man's) will unto 
God's will, relative to the obeying of all His commands 
and Hving up strictly in accordance with the laws of 
man's creation; enjoining him and irxforming him that 
by failure to comply with these conditions he would 
surely reap soul death; God knowing that the failure 
of man to live up to these laws of his being or His 



22 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

I 

commandments unto him brought everlasting destruction 
and alienation of man from God. When this disobedi- 
ence of God's commands took place, sin entered into the 
world, and the result of sin in its completest form in 
man is spiritual death. Now this death applies to the 
soul as well as to the destruction of the fleshly body. 

After man's failure to comply with God's will, the 
curse of God came upon him from the natural results 
of the workings of the existing laws, that God had 
brought into existence that man should live in accord- 
ance therewith. This is very forcibly shown by St. 
Paul, who was one of the most learned men of his time, 
of all the laws, both spiritual and temporal; who was 
aided in his ability, because of the fact of his being one 
of God's chosen vessels, to carry and expound all of the 
spiritual law of God, which set forth His desires to the 
world of humanity, who had never known God, or was 
conversant with any of His blessed promises to man. 
These people consisted of the Gentile race, and all the 
Pagan world were worshiping gods of their own creation. 
St. Paul thus conveys it to us by the inspiration of his 
God and oiu: God. In speaking of what Christ brought 
to us, he says: "Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are 
become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that 
ye should be married to another, even to him who is 
raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit 
unto God. For when we were in the flesh, the motions 
of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members 
to bring forth fruit unto death. But now we are de- 
livered from the law, that being dead wherein we were 
held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not 
in the oldness of the letter. What shall we say then? 
Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known 
sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 23 

the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. But sin, taking 
occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all man- 
ner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. 
For I was aUve without the law once: but when the 
commandment came, sin revived, and I [spiritually] died." 
So without law there could be no sin. Thus you see 
that sin comes into the world by the violation of the 
law. And it is within man's power to conform to the 
will of his Creator, and thus stand perfect before the 
law, in accordance with His Word. 

This is where man became the enemy of his Maker, 
and went off into sin and degradation, worshiping idols 
and gods of his own creation. This condition that man 
by his disobedience placed himself into was of such an 
awful state that God in His wisdom saw proper to en- 
deavor to redeem man back to Himself by making a 
covenant with man of penitence and sacrifice. It was 
God's desire that man should be reinstated, if possible, 
in that perfect state which God had first created him, 
and He had created him in His own image and likeness. 
Genesis i : 26, 27: "And God said. Let us make man in 
our image, after our likeness : and let them have domin- 
ion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, 
and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every 
creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God 
created man in his own image; in the image of God 
created he him; male and female created he them." 
In the creating of man in God's image he was given the 
powers and faculties of reason, love, and the power ta 
look into and investigate what comes before his observa- 
tion, with a will-power of his own to choose that which 
he will. Therefore, man can say with full knowledge 
that *'I know that I am" and look at all the observable 
surroundings and reason upon them with such reasoning 



24 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

powers and intelligence so that man could build up his 
spiritual powers in accordance with God's will. 

Further, at the same time, God asked him to search 
for knowledge, and apply unto Him for wisdom, and He 
will abundantly furnish it, providing man will submit 
his will to the will of his Maker. Man, possessing these 
powers, can mould and frame up his destinies in that 
perfect manner that will be pleasing to his Creator. 
This is providing that man's course is strictly in ac- 
cordance with the will of Him who demands that perfect 
life, in that of being willing at all times to not rely on 
his will, but the will of Him who knoweth all things. 
If man had been created with any less powers, he could 
not attain to the dignity of a man, and would not have 
been in the image of his Creator. So taking from man 
the least of his most wonderful endowments, you would 
so cripple man's opportunity that he could not carry 
out the great plans that his Creator has provided for 
him. The great difficulty that overtook mankind is man's 
failure to obey God and submit to the will of his Creator. 

Man's situation as placed upon the earth was un- 
doubtedly the best that could be given to him to enable 
him to succeed while Hving upon the earth, being a place 
of preparation for preparing man for a more perfect life, 
enabling man to inherit that celestial abode which is 
prepared and desired that he should by his Creator, 
carrying out the purpose for which He created man. 
In order that this be done, the Creator of all things must 
of necessity manifest himself to mankind in such a man- 
ner that man will be enabled to comprehend his whole 
duty towards his Creator; there is no question but what 
if this Creator of all things would have failed to do this 
for man, and that it was not intended that He should 
do so, then certainly the Creator of this world and all 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 25 

the system of worlds could not have any object in view 
or ultimate end to reach in creating the worlds and 
placing them in their order and putting upon this planet 
all the different creations that He has. Since the world 
has been known to man, the Creator of it has never 
created or established anything upon the earth greater 
than man; so that if this great intelligent Power has a 
motive or object in view or ultimate end to reach, He 
must have intended at the time He created man to have 
something more in store for him than to be born of 
woman and of a few days and then pass oif back to the 
earth again forever. This condition can hardly be suc- 
cessfully urged to be tenable and be attributed to this 
great intelligent Being who created all things. So, con- 
ceding that the Christian's God must of necessity have 
a destiny for man, then we must admit and concede that 
His whole duty to man would not be complete without 
His manifesting Himself in such a way to man that man 
by obedience to his Creator could become such a being 
that his Creator would be pleased with, so He could 
bring to him a better future state of existence than the 
one he now occupies. In order that this be done, man's 
Creator and Benefactor endowed man with language, so 
that he could communicate with his Maker through the 
operation of His Holy Spirit and angels by inspiration, 
inspiring man and giving unto him His wishes, thus en- 
abling man to convey these desires from one to the 
other, thereby giving him an opportunity to Hve in 
accordance with the will of his Maker. 

It has been admitted and conceded by all the writers 
relative to the things that do exist that man's own ig- 
norance is such that this necessity did exist and required 
that further assistance be given man, so that he could 
be instructed how to worship his Creator. Among all 



2 6 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

the nations of the earth that existed at the time God 
came to the Children of Israel, His chosen people, to 
manifest Himself to them, so that He might through 
them draw the world unto Himself, these other nations 
referred to were all worshiping some Power supposed to 
be superior to themselves. This worship only consists 
of asking this Power to have compassion upon men and 
grant unto them great social privileges and joys while 
occupying this earth, and they had no knowledge what- 
ever of any future life. This is illustrated and shown 
conclusively by the position taken and shown in history 
to exist by the philosophers and greatest men who oc- 
cupied the head of these nations. Socrates, the Greek 
philosopher, meeting Alcibiades, who was one of the most 
learned Greek philosophers, going to the temple to pray, 
dissuaded him from it, for the reason he claimed that 
he knew not how to do so until one should appear and 
come to teach him, saying, *'It is altogether necessary 
that you should wait for some person to teach you how 
you ought to behave yourself, both to the gods and to 
man." Plato tells the Athenians that they would re- 
main in a state of sleep forever if God did not out of 
pity send to them an instructor. Cicero says: '*I do 
not suppose that Arcesilaus engaged in dispute with Zeno 
out of obstinacy or a desire of superiority, but to show 
that obscurity under which all things did exist and force 
Socrates to a confession of his ignorance.'* And all these 
who were in a manner enamored with Socrates, such as 
Democrates, Anaxagoras, and Empedocles, and almost 
all the ancients, were reduced to the same confession. 
They all maintain that no true insight could be acquired, 
nothing clearly perceived or known; that our senses 
were limited, our intellect weak, and the course of man's 
life short. According to Democrates, truth lay buried 



MORTALS AND IiMMORTAUTY. 27 \ 

in the depths of the sea or in a well without a bottom. 
Such was the uncertainty that these philosophers have 
reasoned themselves into, respecting the nature of God \ 

or the Creator of all things. The immortality of the ! 

soul and the future state, the most important of all j 

subjects of which barbarians always kept closely in touch | 

with early tradition, showed they were not so grossly | 

ignorant. I 

It might be well here to insert and adopt some of the 
words of Gibbon, one who has been recognized to be a j 

great writer against the doctrine of revealed religion, ' 

to show his knowledge relative to discretion, which we 
should scarcely have expected from such a quarter. ; 

"Since therefore the most sublime efforts of philosophy I 

can extend no further than feebly to point out the de- 
sire, the hope, or, at most, the probability of a future ; 
state, there is nothing to take the place of divine rev- , 
elation that can ascertain the existence and describe the 
condition of the invisible country which is destined to 
receive the souls of men after the separation from the '\ 
body." Probably one cause for the Greek and Roman 
philosophers not having a greater knowledge of the un- 
seen world beyond this existence was that their religion 1 
did not teach anything that could come to man except ' 
privileges and happiness beyond this present life. Al- 
ways in their prayers to their gods they ask for tem- i 
poral happmess and blessings; Jupiter and Apollo being 1 
the greatest of these gods that they worshiped and asked 
favors from. ! 

This statement in philosophy must be recognized as of 
great importance: *' Things entirely unknown can only he ! 

communicated to the mind of man by things already known.** \ 

This axiom the writer regards as the basis of all revealed ! 

religion, and it explains many otherwise inexpHcable in- j 



28 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

cidents in the communication from God to man. There- 
fore language, which God gave to man so that man 
could use it as well as symbols in representing the dif- 
ferent objects and principles; so that God could intelli- 
gently convey Himself as the Creator and Preserver of 
all things to man, fully enabling him to accomplish that 
which will be in accordance with His Almighty Will. 
Also this enabled man, as has been shown, to communi- 
cate to others all the blessed revelations that come to 
him from his Creator or any of the heavenly messengers. 
The fact that God comes to one nation and not to 
all at the same time has been a great stumbHng-stone 
to many who are seeking light in the beyond. The 
world forgets that man must be taught by object-lessons 
as well as by revelation; thus when God came to His 
chosen people to manifest Himself to the world in a 
spiritual dispensation and in acting as their leader and 
general, as it were, teaching them by miracles and object- 
lessons through a period of triumphs most wonderfully 
accomplished for about four hundred years of his govern- 
ment as being the God of his armies, so as to make His 
name known throughout all the earth. It is further 
demonstrated beyond a question, shown in all history, 
that God, in order to convince man that it was He that 
made all things and established the hosts of this world, 
was of necessity to come to man in more ways than one 
and to proclaim Himself by many names, manifesting 
Himself in various ways and powers, so that man could 
comprehend and realize that He was their friend and 
benefactor and in the end He called Himself their Father, 
the Father of All. Then in this instance He establishes 
firmly in the mind of man the complete brotherhood of 
all people and of all nations on the earth, which is to 
teach tham and to show them that every man who sub- 



MORTALS AND lAIIxIORTAUTY. 29 

mits his will to the will of the Father stands upon an 
equality before his Creator; also that they may under 
those circumstances be of one mind, and this mind be 
in full accord with the mind of their Creator. 

Yet we find that man, when endowed with this great 
will-power, became arrogant and self-assuming in his 
nature, choosing rather to exercise this will in his own 
way, disregarding God's laws and commands, arraying 
himself in full rebelilon against his Creator. In so doing 
man fell from his high and first perfect state and was 
thus destroyed in both body and soul and became com- 
pletely alienated from his Maker, plunging himself into 
the awful abyss of sin to such an extent that in doing 
the deeds of the law or performing them or attempting to 
perform them by himself, while in this carnal-minded, 
alienated condition, exercising his own self-willed way, 
he could not be saved. Thus man's Creator, seeing his 
awful condition and having sympathy for man and His 
love going out to him, He offered and did make a cove- 
nant with him for the purpose of bringing him back 
unto Him, for the purpose of reinstating him in his first 
high temporal condition when he was created, and at 
the same time enabling him to escape the awful destruc- 
tion that awaited him. This covenant which God made 
with man was one of sacrifice and penitence, which re- 
quired man to offer up to his Creator, and when fully 
compHed with, carrying out the full surrender of man's 
will to the will of his Creator, would bring man into 
harmony with God and fully restore him to his first 
estate. 



30 MORTALS AND IMMORTAUTY. 

CHAPTER II. 

The Prophecy o^ the Messiah. 

The full completion of the covenant was first prom- 
ised in the third chapter of Genesis, after showing with 
what great price we were to be purchased from our 
fallen condition. We must be careful to notice what 
sacrifice and work the Creator did in order to place 
man in a position where he would be in an attitude to 
comply with God's will, so that he (man) could inherit 
eternal life and eventually become like unto his Creator 
sufficient to remain in the company of Him and all the 
holy angels forever. This promise referred to is in Gen- 
esis, third chapter. God said: *'I will put enmity be- 
tween thee [sin] and the woman, and between thy seed 
[sin or disobedience of God's will, or violating His laws] 
and her seed [Jesus Christ, the Lord from Heaven]; it 
shall bruise thy head [sin], and thou shalt bruise his 
heel [forever tempting man to disobey God's will by ad- 
hering to the allurements and pleasures of this world, 
by submitting thy will to the prince of the air or the 
god of this world, instead of the will of the Creator]." 
The full accomplishment of this promise is foretold and 
revealed by God through man to man, using man in 
many instances as His agent, and by His angels and 
Himself speaking direct to man, and is portrayed and 
set forth in His holy Word by the holy prophets through- 
out the Word of God, from Genesis to Malachi. Man- 
kind being in utter rebellion against God, disregarding 
His will and going off worshiping and reverencing beings 
or gods of man's own creation, to such an extent that 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 31 

God in due time found that is was necessary for Him 
to destroy man from the face of the earth, leaving only 
a few of His chosen ones, by which He might be able 
to v/ork out His plans for the protection and enabHng 
of man and placing him in that high estate where He 
would be able to reclaim him and take man eventually 
unto Himself. 

After God had destroyed man from the face of the 
earth except Noah and his family, man still persisted 
in ever going into idolatry and worshiping idols of his 
own creation, and God then instituted the covenant of 
sacrifice with Abraham, promising that He would in due 
time send a Messiah or Savior unto the people. Gen- 
esis 12 :2-3 : "I will make of thee a great nation, and I will 
bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt 
be a blessing: and I will bless them that bless thee, and 
curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all fam- 
ilies of the earth be blessed." Then the priest of the most 
high God and king of Salem blessed Abraham. Gen- 
esis 14:18-19: " And Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought 
forth bread and wine : and he was the priest of the most 
high God. And he blessed him, and said. Blessed be 
Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and 
earth." Here is where God is making His covenant and 
sacrifice with man with a promise of a better covenant 
in God's due time. In the making of this covenant and 
sacrifice for the recovery of man from the idolatrous and 
dreadful sinful condition that all mankind have been 
plunged into by not submitting man's will to God's will, 
which must be made the condition that will make man 
ultimately the same pure and perfect being as when 
created and placed in the Garden of Eden, the cove- 
nant of sacrifice and mode of worship is intended to 
make man desist from this idol-worship, and become 



32 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

humbly living, faith-believing, and an obedient child of 
the Creator. 

In order for man to attain to the perfection necessary 
to meet the requirements and state of being which will 
bring to man that purity of life so that his Creator will 
confer upon him the great blessing of eternal life, man 
must become born of the Spirit and become spiritually 
minded, instead of being carnally minded, and must be- 
come humble, with a contrite, loving, self-sacrificing, un- 
selfish, and forgiving nature, believing God in all things, 
submitting his will to God's will in all things, and ever 
seeking His favor in a humble, loving manner, loving 
God above all else with all his might and with all his 
soul, ever looking to Him in a faithful and trusting 
spirit for His mercies, doubting nothing as against His 
Creator. This kind of service and faith and submission, 
God says, is man's reasonable service to Him, as well 
as one necessary to redeem man from his condition that 
God found him in after falling from his first estate. In 
the instructing of Abraham in Genesis 15 19 we find the 
covenant and commandment of the promise and sacrifice 
to redeem man by a loving Savior in due time. God said 
unto Abraham: ''Take me an heifer of three years old, 
and a she-goat of three years old, and a ram of three 
years old, and a turtle dove, and a young pigeon." And 
that day God made a covenant with Abraham foretell- 
ing him the blessings that should come to him. (Gen. 
15:18, also Ps. 105:9.) The act of Abraham sacrificing 
Isaac shows without question the clear promise of the 
Messiah or Savior. Genesis 22:15-18: "And the angel 
[God] of the Lord called unto Abraham out of Heaven 
the second time, and said, By myself have I sworn, 
saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, 
and hast not withheld thy son, thine only sen: that in 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 33 

blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will mul- 
tiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the 
sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall 
possess the gate of his enemies; and in thy seed shall 
all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou 
hast obeyed my voice." Then we find again that God 
most graciously made the promise of the Messiah through 
Jacob. Genesis 28:14: "And thy seed shall be as the 
dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the 
west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south : 
and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the 
earth be blessed." Then referring again to Genesis 49: 
10, we find here in the Scriptures: ''The sceptre shall 
not depart from Judah, nor a law-giver from between 
his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gath- 
ering of the people be." It is shown again that Jesus 
Christ is mentioned as communicating with Moses. Ex- 
odus 3:14: "And God said unto Moses, I Am That I 
Am. And he said. Thus shalt thou say unto the chil- 
dren of Israel, I Am hath sent me unto you." 

In the sixteenth chapter of Leviticus it is set out how 
the high priest offers up sacrifices for the people. This 
strikingly illustrates Jesus Christ's passion and sacrifice 
for the world in His crucifixion, death, and resurrection. 
The reasons that the blood offering is made as a symbol 
for the atonement for sins are fully explained in Levit- 
icus 17:11: "For the life of the flesh is in the blood: 
and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an 
atonement for your souls : for it is the blood that maketh 
an atonement for the soul." This is where you find that 
when Jesus Christ shed His blood for the atonement of 
the sins of all men who submitted their wills to God's 
will in adhering to His commandments and teachings, 
with faith believing, everlasting life is promised. We 



34 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

find the Savior promised also in Numbers 24:17: "I 
shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not 
nigh : there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre 
shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of 
Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth." God 
promises a prophet like unto Himself, which is set out 
and foretold in Deuteronomy 18:15: *'The Lord thy 
God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst 
of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye 
shall hearken/' Here is shown the positive truth of the 
divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ. Also that Jesus Christ, 
our Savior and Redeemer, is equal with the great God of 
Heaven, who made all things. Exodus 12:21-22: ''Mo- 
ses called for all the elders of Israel, and said unto them. 
Draw out and take you a lamb according to your fam- 
iHes, and kill the passover. And ye shall take a bunch 
of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the bason, 
and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood 
that is in the bason; and none of you shall go out at 
the door of his house until the morning." In doing this 
they were protected from the destroyers and the Children 
of Israel were commanded to do this as an ordinance 
forever. This Passover is instituted as a beautiful type 
of the sacrifice to be made by the Messiah or Lord Jesus 
Christ, so that men might be reclaimed and Adam's sin 
blotted out forever from his life. 

Abraham was promised by the Lord that all man- 
kind should be blessed through the birth of his son Isaac. 
In Psalm 2:12 instructions are given as to the promise 
of a Redeemer, and to the world is told how to treat 
the Son when He comes. His promise is set forth in 
Psalm 16:10-11: "For thou wilt not leave my soul in 
hell [the grave] ; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One 
to see corruption. Thou wilt shew me the path of life: 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 35 

in thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand 
there are pleasures for evermore . " Psalm 1 8 15 o : " Great 
deliverance giveth he to his king; and sheweth mercy 
to his anointed, to David, and to his seed for evermore." 
Psalm 21:4-5: **He asked life of thee, and thou gavest 
it him, even length of days for ever and ever. His 
glory is great in thy salvation: honor and majesty hast 
thou laid upon him." Psalm 22:13-18: ''They gaped 
upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring 
lion. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are 
out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the 
midst of my bowels. My strength is dried up like a pot- 
sherd; and my tongue cleave th to my jaws; and thou 
hast brought me into the dust of death. For dogs have 
compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have in- 
closed me : they pierced my hands and my feet. I may 
tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me. They 
part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my 
vesture." Psalm 22:29-31 : ''All they that be fat upon 
earth shall eat and worship: all they that go down to 
the dust shall bow before him : and none can keep aHve 
his own soul. A seed shall serve him; it shall be ac- 
counted to the lyord for a generation. They shall come, 
and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that 
shall be born, that he hath done this." Psalm 27:12: 
"Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies: 
for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as 
breathe out cruelty." Psalm 30:5: "For his anger en- 
dureth but a moment; in his favor is life: weeping may 
endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning." 
Psalm 41:9: "Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom 
I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath Hfted up his 
heel against me." Psalm 45 \6-'j\ "Thy throne, O God, 
is for ever and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom is a 



36 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

right sceptre. Thou lovest righteousness and hatest wick- 
edness : therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with 
the oil of gladness above thy fellows.'* Psalm 49:9, 15: 
*'That he should still live for ever, and not see corrup- 
tion. .... But God will redeem my 
soul from the power of the grave: for he shall receive 
me." Psalm 68:20: ''He that is our God is the God 
of salvation; and unto God the Lord belong the issues 
from death." Psalm 69 120-2 1 : ''Reproach hath broken 
mine heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked 
for some to take pity, but there was none; and for com- 
forters, but I found none. They gave me also gall for 
my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to 
drink." The seventy-second chapter shows vividly, in 
David's prayer for his son Solomon, the type of Jesus 
Christ at His coming. Psalm 109:3-5, 25: "They com- 
passed me about also with words of hatred; and fought 
against me without a cause. For my love they are my 
adversaries: but I give myself unto prayer. And they 
have rewarded me evil for good, and hatred for my 
love. .... I became also a reproach 
unto them: when they looked upon me they shaked 
their heads." Psalm 110:1, 4: "The Lord said unto 
my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine 

enemies thy footstool The Lord 

hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for 
ever after the order of Melchizedek." Psalm 118:19-23: 
"Open to me the gates of righteousness: I will go into 
them, and I will praise the Lord: this gate of the Lord, 
into which the righteous shall enter. I will praise thee: 
for thou hast heard me, and art become my salvation. 
The stone which the builders refused is become the head 
stone of the corner. This is the Lord's doings; it is 
marvelous in our eyes." 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 37 

The prophet Isaiah probably more beautifully illus- 
trates and foretells the coming of our Lord and His sav- 
ing and redemptive powers more clearly than any other 
prophet of the Old Testament, and almost conclusively 
shows how He will establish His kingdom of righteous- 
ness in the world by bringing the spiritual gift to be 
within the breasts of the sons of man. Isaiah 2:2-3: 
**And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the 
mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the 
top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the 
hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many 
people shall go and say. Come ye, and let us go up to 
the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of 
Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will 
walk in his paths : for out of Zion shall go forth the law, 
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." Isaiah 7: 
14: ''Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign: 
Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall 
call his name Immanuel." Isaiah 8:8: **And he shall 
pass through Judah; he shall overflow and go over, he 
shall reach even to the neck; and the stretching out of 
his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel." 
Isaiah 9:6-7: ''For unto us a child is born, unto us a 
son is given: and the government shall be upon his 
shoulder : and his name shall be called Wonderful, Coun- 
sellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The 
Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and 
peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, 
and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it 
with judgment and with justice from henceforth even 
for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform 
this." Isaiah 11:1-5: "And there shall come forth a 
rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow 
out of his roots: and the spirit of the Lord shall rest 



38 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the 
spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and 
of the fear of the Lord; and shall make him of quick 
understanding in the fear of the Lord: and he shall not 
judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after 
the hearing of his ears: but with righteousness shall he 
judge the poor, .... and he shall smite 
the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath 
of his lips shall he slay the wicked. And righteousness 
shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle 
of his reins." Isaiah 25 :8-9 : *' He will swallow up death 
in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from 
off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take 
away from off all the earth : for the Lord hath spoken it. 
And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; 
we have waited for him, and he will save us : this is the 
Lord; we have waited for him, we will be glad and re- 
joice in his salvation." Isaiah 35:4-6: **Say to them 
that are of a fearful heart. Be strong, fear not: behold, 
your God will come with vengeance, even God with a 
recompence; he will come and save you. Then the eyes 
of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf 
shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as 
an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the 
wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the 
desert." Isaiah 40:3-5, 9-11: "The voice of him that 
crieth in the wilderness. Prepare ye the way of the Lord, 
make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 
Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and 
hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made 
straight, and the rough places plain: and the glory of 
the Lord shall be revelaed, and all flesh shall see it to- 
gether: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. 

O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 39 

thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that 
bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; 
lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, 
Behold your God ! Behold, the Lord God will come with 
strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his 
reward is with him, and his work before him. He shall 
feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs 
with his arm, and carry them in his bosom." Isaiah 42: 
1-4, 16: "Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine 
elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit 
upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. 
He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be 
heard in the street. A bruised reed shall he not break, 
and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall 
bring forth udgment unto truth. He shall not fail nor 
be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth: 
and the isles shall wait for his law. . . . And 
I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; 
I will lead them in paths that they have not known: 
I will make darkness light before them, and crooked 
things straight. These things will I do unto them, and 
not forsake them." Isaiah 59:21: Here it is shown that 
this covenant that God promised to the Children of 
Israel should be an everlasting covenant, so that there 
is no expectation of any other covenant from God's 
command, for it is here said by the prophet: **As for 
me, this is my covenant with them, saith the Lord: 
My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have 
put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, 
nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth 
of thy seed's seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and 
for ever." Isaiah 53: "Who hath believed our report? 
and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? for he 
shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root 



40 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; 
and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we 
should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; 
a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we 
hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and 
we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, 
and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, 
smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for 
our transgressions, he was bruised for oiu* iniquities: the 
chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his 
stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone 
astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and 
the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He 
was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not 
his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, 
and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he open- 
eth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from 
judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for 
he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the 
transgression of my people was he stricken. And he 
made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in 
his death; because he had done no violence, neither was 
any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to 
bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt 
make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, 
he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord 
shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail 
of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge 
shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall 
bear their iniquities. Therefore wiil I divide him a por- 
tion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with 
the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto 
death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; 



MORTALS AND LAOIORTALITY. 41 

and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for 
the transgressors." 

Jeremiah 23:5-7: ''Behold, the days come, saith the 
Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, 
and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute 
judgment and justice in the earth. In his days Judah 
shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this 
is his name whereby he shall be called, Th^ Lord Our 
Righteousness. Therefore, behold, the days come, saith 
the Lord, that they shall no more say, The Lord liveth, 
which brought up the children of Israel out of the land 
of Egypt." Jeremiah 31:29-34: *'In those days they 
shall say no more. The fathers have eaten a sour grape, 
and the children's teeth are set on edge. But every one 
shall die for his own iniquity: every man that eateth 
the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge. Behold, 
the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new 
covenant with the house of Israel, and vAth the house 
of Judah: not according to the covenant that I made 
with their fathers in the day that I took them by the 
hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which 
my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto 
them, saith the Lord: but this shall be the covenant 
that I will make with the house of Israel: After those 
days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward 
parts and write it in their hearts; and will be their 
God, and they shall be my people. And they shall 
teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man 
his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all 
know me, from the least of them unto the greatest cf 
them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, 
and I will remember their sin no more." 

Ezekiel 17:22-24: "Thus saith the Lord God: I will 
also take of the highest branch of the high cedar, and 



42 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

will set it; I will crop off from the top of his young 
twigs a tender one, and will plant it upon an high mount- 
ain and eminent: in the mountain of the height of Is- 
rael will I plant it: and it shall bring forth boughs, and 
bear fruit, and be a goodly cedar: and under it shall 
dwell all fowl of every wing; in the shadow of the 
branches thereof shall they dwell. And all the trees of 
the field shall know that I the Lord have brought down 
the high tree, have exalted the low tree, have dried up 
the green tree, and have made the dry tree to flourish: 
I the Lord have spoken and have done it." 

Daniel 7:13-14: *'I saw in the night visions, and, 
behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds 
of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they 
brought him near before him. And there was given him 
dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, 
nations, and languages should serve him: his dominion 
is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, 
and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed." 

Hosea 6:1-3: ''Come, and let us return unto the 
Lord: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath 
smitten, and he v/ill bind us up. After two days will 
he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and 
we shall live in his sight. Then shall we know, if we 
follow on to knovvT the Lord : his going forth is prepared 
as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, 
as the latter and former rain unto the earth." 

Micah 5 12-4 : "But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though 
thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of 
thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in 
Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from 
everlasting. Therefore will he give them up, until the 
time that she which travaileth hath brought forth : then 
the remnant of his brethren shall return unto the children 



ii\ 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 43 

of Israel. And he shall stand and feed in the strength 
of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord 
his God ; and they shall abide : for now shall he be great 
unto the ends of the earth." 

Zechariah 3:8-9: *'Hear now, O Joshua the high 
priest, thou, and thy fellows that sit before thee: for 
they are men wondered at: for, behold, I will bring 
forth my servant the Branch. F'or behold the stone that 
I have laid before Joshua; upon one stone shall be seven 
eyes: behold, I will engrave the graving thereof, saith 
the Lord of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of that 
land in one day." Zechariah 9:9: ''Rejoice greatly, O 
daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: be- 
hold, thy King cometh unto thee : he is just, and having 
salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a 
colt the foal of an ass." Zechariah 11:11-13: "And it 
was broken in that day: and so the poor of the flock 
that waited upon me knew that it was the word of the 
Lord. And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me 
my price; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my 
price thirty pieces of silver. And the Lord said unto 
me. Cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was 
prised at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, 
and cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord." 
Zechariah 12 :io: ''I will pour upon the house of David, 
and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of 
grace and of suppHcations : and they shall look upon 
me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for 
him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in 
bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his 
firstborn." Zechariah 13:5-'': "But he shall say, I am 
no prophet, I am an husbandman; for man taught me 
to keep cattle from my youth. And one shall say unto 
him, What are these wounds in thy hands? Then he 



44 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the 
house of my friends. Awake, O sword, against my shep- 
herd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the 
I^ord of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall 
be scattered: and I will turn mine hand upon the little 
ones." 

Malachi 3:1-3: "Behold, I will send my messenger, 
and he shall prepare the way before me: and the I^ord, 
whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even 
the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: be- 
hold, he shall come, saith the I^ord of hosts. But who 
may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand 
when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and 
like fullers' sope: and he shall sit as a refiner and puri- 
fier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of I^evi, and 
purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto 
the Lord an offering in righteousness. ' ' Malachi 3:16-1*': 
"Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to an- 
other: and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a 
book of remembrance was written before him for them 
that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name. 
And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that 
day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, 
as a man spareth his own son that serveth him." 



CHAPTER III. 

The New Covenant. 

The old Covenant was a constitution of law; the 
second or Christian covenant was a constitution of love 
and favor — the sacrifice of the atonement for their sins 
by the High Priest, which was brought upon the people 
by the fall of Adam and Eve in failing to submit their 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 45 

wills in performing the commandments of their Creator. 
This manner of service was instituted by God in His 
first covenant as an atoning sacrifice, which God required 
of the Children of Israel in order that they might re- 
ceive His favor, and we will here set out the mode in 
v/hich sacrifice was offered, as shown in Leviticus i6: 
14-22: "And he shall take of the blood of the bullock, 
and sprinkle it with his finger upon the mercy seat east- 
ward; and before the mercy seat shall he sprinkle of 
the blood with his finger seven times. Then shall he 
kill the goat of the sin offering, that is for the people, 
and bring his blood within the vail, and do with that 
blood as he did with the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle 
it upon the mercy seat, and before the mercy seat: and 
he shall make an atonement for the holy place, because 
of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because 
of their transgressions in all their sins: and so shall he 
do for the tabernacle of the congregation, that remaineth 
among them in the midst of their uncleanness. And 
there shall be no man in the tabernacle of the congre- 
gation when he goeth in to make an atonement in the 
holy place, until he come out, and have made an atone- 
ment for himself, and for his household, and for all the 
congregation of Israel. And he shall go out unto the 
altar that is before the Lord, and make an atonement 
for it; and shall take of the blood of the bullock, and 
of the blood of the goat, and put it upon the horns of 
the altar round about. And he shall sprinkle of the 
blood upon it with his finger seven times, and cleanse 
it, and hallow it from the uncleanness of the children of 
Israel. And when he hath made an end of reconcihng 
the holy place, and the tabernacle of the congregation, 
and the altar, he shall bring the live goat: and Aaron 
shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat,. 



46 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

and confess over him all the iniquities of the children 
of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, 
putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send 
him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness: 
and the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto 
a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in 
the wilderness." 

The Lord Jesus Christ, in His crucifixion and sacri- 
fice and the spilling of. His blood, taking upon Him all 
the sins of the world, took the place of the sacrifice men- 
tioned in the covenant of sacrifice forever, and at the 
same time conquered death and gloriously ascended back 
to Heaven, and is there sitting at the right hand of the 
Father, to judge the world as well as to act as our high 
priest, pleading for our cause through His own merit, 
and not ours, that we may be washed and purified from 
all our iniquities. He assumed the position of our high 
priest to ever act in the order of the high priest who 
was called Melchizedek, who was king of Salem and high 
priest of God at the same time. The first covenant and 
sacrifice for sin to wipe out Adam's transgression was 
first instituted for man's redemption and purification 
about 1490 years before the new covenant, which was 
promised with the coming of the Messiah, who would 
by His sacrifice entirely blot out that sin incurred by 
reason of the fall of Adam, and each shall be charged 
and be responsible for his own sins only. The new cov- 
enant was made with the house of Israel and the house 
of Judah for three reasons: that the old covenant was 
found insufficient because man persisted in his refusing 
to submit his will to God's will; it was shown that by 
the deeds of the law no flesh could be saved, and that 
this old covenant was fully used in bringing the Children 
of Israel from bondage out of Egypt into the Holy Land. 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 47 

Although God in so doing this favor unto them, as He 
said, was an husband unto them, yet they willfully and 
persistently departed from His commands and directions 
and were forever breaking His laws at their own pleas- 
ure. During the time that God was taking the Children 
of Israel from bondage out of Egypt, He treated them 
and taught them an object-lesson as a teacher and school- 
master, and as oft as they refused his admonitions and 
disobeyed His laws calamity, misfortune, and death over- 
took them, but in all cases wherein they adhered and 
lived up to God's commands great blessings, joy, com- 
fort, and prosperity attended them. And God performed 
many miracles before them as object-lessons, so they 
would become thoroughly convinced that He was their 
God of salvation and the One whom they should wor- 
ship and adore. But, notwithstanding this fact, they, 
departed from Him and persistently followed their own 
practice of idol-worship, worshiping their own creations, 
objects which they produced from exercising their own 
will. The sin of idol- worship was the great sin which 
God's people fell into and persistently followed, prior to 
the time of their deHvery into the Land of Promise. The 
new covenant was to be of such a nature that God's laws 
would be put within the inward parts and be written in 
the hearts of the whole people of every nation on the 
earth. And Jehovah promises to be their God, and they 
are to be His people, provided they will submit their 
wills to His will, and believe on His Son, which He was 
to send to them. Their iniquities shall all be forever 
blotted out and He will remember them against them 
no more forever. 

We may notice that the first covenant carried with 
it certain sacrifices and ordinances that were to be per- 
formed for the people in making propitiation for their 



48 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

sins. They erected a tabernacle, within which they placed 
a candlestick, the table, and the shew-bread, and they 
called this the sanctuary; after passing the second vail, 
you then come into the tabernacle, and this is called the 
place of the Holiest of All. This place is where the 
golden censer and the ark of the covenant that is overlaid 
with pure gold all around and about, wherein was placed 
the golden pot which was the receptacle for the manna 
and Aaron's rod that budded, with the tables of the 
covenant, and over it the cherubim of glory showing 
the mercy seat, which was the covering or lid of the ark 
of the covenant or holy chest wherein was placed all 
the tables of all the laws, and over which the cher- 
ubim were placed and the Shekinah rested, and from 
which God spake mercifully to His people. The priests 
always went into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the 
service of God, but into the second went the great high 
priest alone once every year; not, however, without 
blood, which the priest offered for himself and also for 
the sins of the whole people. The Holy Ghost this 
signifying that the v/ay into the Holiest of Holies was 
not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was 
yet standing, which was a type, for the present time, 
in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that 
could not make him who did the sacrificing perfect with* 
in his conscience, which stood only in meats and drinks 
with divers washings and baptisms, with carnal ordi- 
nances imposed on them until the time of reformation; 
but when Jesus Christ became a high priest, as you 
have seen, of good tidings and great joy of things to 
come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle not made 
with hands, that is to say, not of the kind of building; 
neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by the 
precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, he entered in 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 49 

once into the Holy Place, having obtained eternal re- 
demption for us from the sins of the fall ; for if the blood 
of the bulls and goats and the ashes of an heifer sprink- 
ling the unclean sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh, 
how much more shall the blood of Jesus Christ, who 
through the Eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot 
or blemish to God the Father, purge your conscience 
from dead works to serve the living God? And for this 
cause Jesus Christ is the mediator of the new covenant, 
that by means of death, for the redemption of the trans- 
gressions that were under the first covenant or testa- 
ment, they which are called might receive the promise 
of eternal inheritance. For where a testament is, there 
must also of necessity be the death of the testator. No 
testament can be enforced until after the death of the 
testator; for while the testator hves there can not be 
any force in the testament. Whereupon neither the first 
testament was dedicated without blood. For when Mo- 
ses had spoken every precept to all the people according 
to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, 
with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled 
both the book and all the people, saying, ''This is the 
blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto 
you.'* Moreover he sprinkled v/ith the blood both the 
tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry. And al- 
most all things are by the law purged with blood; and 
without shedding of blood there can be no renission of 
sin. It was therefore necessary that the patterns of the 
heavenly things must themselves be purified with better 
sacrifices than those of earth. For Jesus Christ is not 
entered into the holy places made with hands, which are 
the figures of the true; but into Heaven itself, now to 
appear in the presence of God for us: nor yet that He 
should offer Himself often, as the high priest entereth 



50 MORTALS AND IMMORTAUTY. 

into the Holy Place every year with blood of others; 
for then must He often have been crucified and suffered 
since the foundation of the world : but now once in the 
end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by 
the sacrifice of Himself. And as it is appointed unto 
men once to die, but after this the judgment: so Jesus 
Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and 
unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second 
time without sin unto salvation. 

Looking over the many prophecies of the coming of 
the Savior and Messiah and connecting them together 
fully shows and conclusively proves such a state of facts 
and conditions relative to the appearing of the Savior 
at the time when He did come as must certainly remove 
every vestige of doubt from the mind of the skeptic, so 
that he must admit that the coming of the Messiah was 
fully understood and the time so clearly predicted that 
the world and every nation on the face of the earth 
with their most learned men and women were expecting 
and looking for Him. This knowledge penetrated into 
all the heathen nations, and the Roman Empire espe- 
cially. With all its learning and its fixed mode of wor- 
ship in that of worshiping the heathen gods, this was 
stirred to its utmost foundation, fearing that this new 
king and prophet would overpower it and become its 
ruler, as well as the ruler of all the earth; and this in- 
formation and belief was so strong among the people 
that many aspiring and ambitious women of those na- 
tions predicted and proclaimed that they would be the 
mother of this new king and prophet. It was further 
well established that the mother of the king or Messiah 
which was promised should be a virgin. 

Some of the foremost prominent and signalized per- 
sonages were to be the king or Messiah's progenitors. 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 51 

Among them were Shem, who first was brought out. 
He was the son of Noah. Blessed be the Lord God of 
Shem. And soon the family of Shem branches out into 
numerous families, each of which forms a powerful na- 
tion. Then we find another one particularized, which 
is Abraham, and the God of Shem becomes the God of 
Abraham, and in the seed of Abraham the blessing is 
now promised, and Abraham has several sons, one by 
Hagar and some by Keturah and one by Sarah. Now 
there is to be a selecting out of the favored one, and we 
find it is said, "In Isaac shall thy seed be called," which 
calls the world to this branch of Abraham's descendants. 
Then again we find that Isaac, has two sons. There is 
another choosing, which shows it was done out of the 
ordinary, because the blessings were conferred usually 
upon the older son; but here the elder shall serve the 
younger, which gave the power upon the younger, Ja- 
cob. Here we find twelve sons; upon which of these 
shall fall the line of favor of giving a Messiah to the 
world? *'The sceptre shall not depart from Judah" was 
a law given from among her descendants till Shiloh come, 
and to him shall all nations come. Then Jacob becomes 
a numerous tribe, and there must be another limitation. 
So David then, the son of Jesse, becomes king of Israel, 
and David's son is to become David's Lord, and David 
sings songs in great numbers concerning His coming and 
Him, which clearly set forth His history as though writ- 
ten after the root and offspring of David had felt all 
the truths of the redemption of mankind. We still go 
on, and find that Isaiah shows that the Messiah's mother 
is to be a virgin of the family of David, and the child's 
name shall be Immanuel (which is, "God with us"). 
This prophecy that the mother of the Messiah should 
be a virgin was foretold about seven hundred and fifty 



52 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

years before the birth of our lyord and Savior, Jesus Christ. 
Then the time when the birth of Jesus should take 
place was so accurately stated and the place so described 
that all the priests and scribes in and about the city of 
Jerusalem could tell where the place was without any 
difficulty, and that men from the different nations of 
the East could start without each other's knowledge of 
one another's intentions and go right to the place of 
His birth. "Thou, O Bethlehem, art not the least among 
the cities of Judah; for out of thee shall come a Gov- 
ernor that shall rule my people Israel." In regard to the 
time and place of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, we 
will further show some of the more prominent facts. 
The Savior was to come before the second temple was 
destroyed, and was to appear in the second temple, and 
was to be in Judah before she ceased to have a governor 
or the governor would come out of the tribe of Judah, 
and the Roman emperors were to be in their greatest 
glory at His coming. He was to come within a definite 
number of years, and the end to be the time given to 
rebuild the new temple. When the second temple was 
built, it was so inferior in its construction to the first 
that the old men who saw the first temple wept when 
they looked upon the second temple. To console them, 
they were told that the glory of the second temple would 
far exceed the first temple, as is shown in Haggai 2:7: 
''And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all 
nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, 
saith the Lord of hosts." Also we will let Malachi give 
reasons why the second temple shall be more glorious 
than the first: ''Behold, I will send my messenger, and 
he shall prepare the way before me : and the Lord, whom 
ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the 



MORTALS AND IMMORTAUTY. 53 

messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, 
he shall come, saith the Ivord of hosts." 

The first temple was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar 
on the tenth day of August, 583 B. C. This is exactly 
the date as shown by Josephus in his history of the time 
and coming of Jesus Christ's birth. This temple was 
set afire by Nebuzaredon, the general of the Babylonian 
army, just four hundred and seventy years, six months, 
and ten days after it was built by King Solomon, ac- 
cording to the statement in the history of the Jews by 
Josephus. The second temple was built about five hun- 
dred years before the birth of the I^ord Jesus Christ. 
This temple and the city of Jerusalem, with almost all 
its inhabitants, were completely destroyed by Titus, the 
Roman general, and his army. This destruction was 
graphically and definitely foretold by the Lord Jesus 
Christ some forty years before, when He stood before 
Jerusalem, with the tears coursing down His divine and 
human cheeks, and proclaimed: *'0 Jerusalem, Jeru- 
salem, who stonest the prophets ! thy house hath become 
desolate; how often would I have gathered thee under 
my wing as a hen gathereth her brood, but ye would 
not." At the same time He foretold what great destruc- 
tion and suffering would come to its inhabitants and 
that there would not be one stone left upon another of 
God's magnificent temple that they had erected to wor- 
ship Him; that there would be weeping and wailing, 
and no one to succor them; that this calamity would 
come to them soon ; that the generation of men that then 
existed would not pass away until those things would 
come to pass, which was shown by His stating that 
there should be some among them that would witness 
this overthrow. 

Josephus in his History of the Jews gives a good 



54 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

account of the fulfillment of this prophecy of our Lord, 
and many other writers in profane history refer to this, 
acknowledging it as a full and correct account of all the 
calamities and destruction that took place at the time 
the Romans destroyed their city. One writer sets out 
that Titus with eighty thousand Roman warriors be- 
sieged the city about April, A. D. 70, pitching his camp 
on Scopus to the north of the city. Besides the twenty- 
four hundred trained Jewish warriors who defended the 
great walls, the city was thronged with an indescribable 
number of persons who had gathered there to attend 
the Passover and also of fugitives from other parts of 
Judah. Feats of the greatest courage and valor took 
place and were performed on both sides, and the skill 
of the besiegers was often checked by the almost unseen 
fury of the besieged. Fanatically relying on the visible 
manifestations of Jehovah to assist them, when they 
had departed and wandered away from His fostering 
care and willfully and infamously violated all His laws, 
the zealots rejected with insult every effort of terms 
offered for surrender. At last Titus drew a line of cir- 
cumvention around the doomed city and began to cru- 
cify all the deserters who fled to him. The horrors of 
the famine which then fell on the besieged are among 
the most horrible ever shown in all human literature. 
The corpses bred pestilence; whole houses were filled 
with unburied families of the dead; mothers slew and 
devoured their own children; hunger, rage, and disaster 
seized the city; it became a cage of furious, mad men and 
women; a city of complete desolation and of howling 
wild beasts and of cannibals whose conduct was too hor- 
rible to fully relate. For the first time for five centuries, 
on July 17, A. D. 70, the daily sacrifices at the temple 
ceased, for the want of priests to offer them; disease 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 55 

^i 

and slaughter ruthlessly accomplished their work at last,' 
amid shrieks and flames and suicide and massacre. The 
temple was taken and reduced to ashes; the great altar 
of sacrifice was heaped with the slain; the courts of the 
temple swam deep in their blood ; six thousand miserable 
women and children sank with wild cries of terror amid 
the blazing ruins of the cloisters. Romans ordered the 
insignia of their legends on the place where the Holiest 
had stood. Josephus states in his history that it was 
Titus's earnest desire to save and preserve the great 
temple, but his commands to his soldiers were utterly 
disregarded in the fury of the great slaughter. 

Historians have repeatedly stated that this most ex- 
traordinary destruction of Jerusalem and the Jews was 
done with a view to stamping out the Christian religion, 
and that Titus thought that if he should destroy the 
Jews, he would be stamping out the fountain-head from 
which this Christianity emanated, and the whole fanat- 
ical superstition, as they styled it, would be forever 
stamped out, root and branch, and the country would 
ultimately be completely rid of what was doing more 
to overthrow the Roman government than anything that 
existed at that time; for at that time the Apostles of the 
Lord Jesus Christ were overrunning the Roman prov- 
inces in carrying Christ's doctrine and religion as in- 
structed by Him to carry the Christian religion to the 
Gentiles and the heathen of the earth. Of all the pris- 
oners taken, the young of both sexes were taken and 
sold as slaves to work in various places where drudgery 
was required by the different people who purchased them, 
and the old were sold to be put to the torture in various 
ways, most of whom at that time were put into the 
arena as gladiators to fight with wild beasts. 

Josephus puts the number of captives at 9,700, and 



56 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

the number of those that perished during the siege at 
1,100,000; the total destruction during the entire war 
was placed at 1,337,490; the prisoners that were taken 
were placed at 101,700; and these amounts do not in- 
clude the small skirmishes that took place in that little 
country. So you see that by looking over the whole 
situation you can imagine how completely desolate that 
little country was, when you realize that from Dan to 
Beersheba is only about 185 miles, with an average 
width of about 60 miles. Jerusalem was so well fortified 
and protected by its massive walls that Titus, when he 
looked upon the spot where it stood in its great magnifi- 
cence and saw not one stone left upon another and all 
the magnificent and nattural trees cleared off from its 
site and swept away, was heard to exclaim that he saw 
his victory in the hands of God. This is related by 
Josephus; and from that time all the Jews, on view- 
ing the place where the great and magnificent city and 
temple stood, were heard to exclaim, **Zion is a wilder- 
ness, Jerusalem a desolation ! Our old and beautiful tem- 
ple, where our fathers praised [as they supposed, their 
great Creator; but their praises were an abomination 
to Him, because of their refusing to submit their wills 
to His], and all our pleasant things are laid waste!" 

This great tragedy, no doubt, was the greatest and 
most eventful evolution in all of God's religious dis- 
pensations, and Jesus Christ described it as near at 
hand. Many of the theologians of our Scriptures have 
interpreted the prophecy of Jesus Christ of this awful 
event to be His second coming, yet not to be connected 
with the time of the Millennium. Had the Jews not 
forgot to live close to their God and hearken unto the 
voice of Him who brought them up out of Egypt, and 
given an attentive ear to the prophets, and received 



IMORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 57 

their God when He came to them, and accepted the new 
dispensation and discarded the old covenant, which was 
one of the constitutions of law, and adopted the new 
covenant, which was one of grace and favor, no doubt the 
Lord would have passed over their great destruction of 
the Holy City. In reviewing the many prophetic fore- 
tellings of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, the 
writer has refrained from making mention of many state- 
ments by holy prophets of what the new dispensation 
of love and mercy was promised. God's labors in bring- 
ing the old covenant were brought to the Children of 
Israel as a lion of the tribe of Judah, and the new and 
everlasting covenant was to be the Good Shepherd of 
His sheep. Who would lead them by a tender and loving 
hand, provided they would receive Him and submit their 
wills unto Him and His will. 



CHAPTER IV. 

FuivFiLLMENT OF' THE Prophecies oi^ the Messtah. 

Now, coming more directly to the appearance and 
coming of the Lord Jesus Christ among men as the God- 
man and His birth, we will give a full account of His 
birth, and the statement which we shall record herein 
is without doubt substantially correct in all its details. 
Profane history is fully in accord with the statements 
which come to us from the sacred history and the friends 
of the Lord Jesus. The pagan world as well as the Gen- 
tile race was well informed at the time that the Savior 
was to be born, and this knowledge that they possessed 
was received and recognized by the most learned of all 
the nations of the earth ; for it is recorded in sacred his- 
tory about the Wise Men visiting the place only by the 



58 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

aid of the prophecies and foretelling the time when and 
where He should appear. This all came to their notice, 
as admitted and recorded by the most learned Roman 
scholars. Many of the learned people of the different 
nations of the earth were looking for the appearance 
upon the earth of some great personage or ruler, who, 
as they thought, would control and dominate throughout 
all the ends of the earth, and his ruling power would be 
carried on forever, and history clearly shows that all 
the people looked for a temporal king; for they had not 
the conception at that time of a spiritual king or Savior, 
as the spiritual kingdom upon the earth had not yet 
come to man. It was the Lord Jesus Christ who brought 
the Holy Spirit to mankind. You will notice where St. 
Paul asked the Ephesians if they had been baptized with 
the Holy Spirit, and they replied that they did not know 
that there was any such thing as a Holy Spirit. 

The last prophet of the Old Testament revealed and 
declared himself to the world as a Jew, being the great 
prophet of St. John the Baptist, who hailed himself as 
a forerunner of good tidings and the coming of the Mes- 
siah being close at hand. St. John the Baptist was 
born most probably at Hebron, about B. C. 5, and was 
beheaded at the end of A. D. 28. The main particulars 
of his life and work, and most fully relied upon by the 
world, are contained in the writings of St. Luke. His 
birth and office were foretold by the Angel Gabriel to 
his father as he was burning incense in the temple at 
Jerusalem, and it is reported that when Zacharias asked 
for some proof or sign of the truth of the prophecy, his 
tongue was sealed, and he did not recover his speech 
until after the birth of the child. St. John abode in 
the wilderness or desert until a short time before the 
Messiahship of Jesus Christ commenced; then he ap- 



I 



MORTALS AND BBIORTALITY. 59 

peared, clothed in camel's hair and with a leathern girdle 
around his loins, as a prophet, in and around the Dead 
Sea, exhorting the people to repentance and claiming 
the near approach of the Messiah. Those who believed 
he baptized with water in the river Jordan, announcing 
at the same time the coming of a mightier one than he, 
who would baptize with the Holy Ghost and with fire. 
He recognized the Messiah in Jesus Christ, Who pre- 
sented Himself to John for baptism, and he pubhcly 
acknowledged Him as being the Lamb of God, that 
taketh away the sins of the world. There is nothing 
to show w^hat relations existed between the Savior and 
St. John relative to any Christian duties, but those that 
were brought into the faith after St. John's death lived 
and worshiped God in a sect known unto this day as 
the Christians of St. John. On account of his censure 
of the marriage of Herod Antipas with his sister-in-law 
Herodias, St. John was imprisoned in the castle of Ma- 
chserus, and there was where he was beheaded by the 
order of Herod. His death and birth are commemorated 
by the CathoHc Church and the Templars of St. John 
on June 24th and August 29th, and he is held in special 
favor by the Masons as a great architect (as a planner 
and builder of that house not made with hands, eternal 
in the heavens as the abode of man). 

It is mentioned that Jesus Christ met St. John about 
half way between Jericho and the river Jordan, and then 
and there asked him to go to the river and baptize Him, 
the Savior. St. John hesitated to do so for the reason 
of his feeling his unworthiness to baptize the Lord of 
Heaven; but Jesus Christ said: "Suffer it to be so now, 
that all the law may be fulfilled." John further said 
to the Savior: "I have need to be baptized of thee, 
and comest thou to me?" Jesus answered and said unto 



6o MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

him: *' Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us 
to fuhill all righteousness." Then John baptized the 
Lord, and when Jesus ascended up out of the water or 
went straightway up out of the water, the heavens were 
opened unto Him and He saw the Spirit of God descending 
Hke a dove and hghting upon Him, and there came a 
voice from Heaven saying: ''This is my beloved Son, 
in whom I am well pleased." 

St. John the Baptist was one of the greatest char- 
acters and men in all history, and without question one 
of the most devout followers of his Creator and God. 
And his God gave to him the greatest privilege of any 
other of his creations of men in conferring upon him 
the privilege of representing the fulfillment of the great 
prophecy of the coming of the I^ord Jesus Christ, and 
when the Lord was to be fully commissioned with His 
Messiahship, John was chosen to assist Him in prepar- 
ing for that work, which was to take away the sins of 
the whole world. Jesus Christ said of him that a greater 
man than St. John the Baptist was never born of woman, 
and all writers have ever accorded to St. John the high- 
est type of manhood. Here is what Josephus says of 
him in his history: "The Jews thought the destruction 
of Herod's army came from God, and that very justly, 
as a punishment of what he did against St. John that 
was called 'The Baptist'; for Herod slew him who was 
A GOOD MAN, and commanded the Jews to exercise vir- 
tue both as to righteousness towards one another and 
purity towards God, and in so doing come to baptism; 
for the washing would be acceptable to Him if they made 
use of it, not in the order to the putting away of some 
sins, but for the ptuification of the body, assuming that 
the soul was thoroughly purged and purified by right- 
eousness. Now when many others came in crowds about 



« 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 6l 

him (for they were greatly moved by hearing his words), 
Herod, who feared John's great influence over the people 
might give him the power to raise a rebellion (for the 
people were ready to do anything that John desired of 
them), and further hated St. John for his opposition 
against him in his marriage, thought it best to put him 
to death, and then he would prevent any mischief he 
might cause, and not be the means of causing Herod 
to repent when it was too late. Accordingly he was 
sent a prisoner, out of Herod's suspicious temper, as 
has been said, to Machaerus, and was there put to death. 
Now the Jews had an opinion that the destruction of 
this army was sent as a punishment upon Herod and 
as a mark of God's displeasure against him." 

The prophecies hereinbefore set out are only a few of 
the multitude of the prophecies in God's Word, made 
by God's chosen apostles, that our Savior would come 
when He did come; but it would seem that there has 
been certainly sufficient set out and shown to convince 
the most skeptical unbeliever that God did bring to His 
chosen people the full knowledge that the Messiah and 
Savior and Redeemer would come to them and save 
them from their sins, and blot out forever the original 
sin which was upon them by the fall of their first par- 
ents. Therefore the only thing that can be consistently 
considered is, Are these prophecies genuine, or were they 
founded on a fraudulent and false basis, for the purpose 
of misleading the Children of Israel, so that they might 
be easily governed and controlled, and inserted in this 
Bible by their leader? If you v/ill make a careful ex- 
amination of all the prophecies, and study how they 
were presented and the manner in which they were pre- 
sented to the people, and the condition of the people as 
to their existence at the time the prophecies were made. 



62 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

and the necessity of their having this great Savior, and 
what He was and would do for them when He came 
unto them, it would seem that you must conclude that 
all the prophecies must be genuine and emanated from 
Divinity itself. The question as to whether these proph- 
ecies were made at the time when they were made, and 
placed in the Bible by Moses just as they are to-day, 
is of vital moment to all the followers of the Christian 
religion. However, there can be scarcely a doubt but 
what this Bible was compiled and written by the very 
ones that it is purported to have been written by, and 
that they were directed and inspired of and from the 
Lord God of the Bible, and that they were placed in 
book form and kept and looked upon as divine revela- 
tion ever since the time of Moses, at least by the Chil- 
dren of Israel. The further proof that they come down 
to us in a perfect state is that the Children of Israel, 
or Jews, as they are commonly called, kept this Bible 
secretly preserved in their Jewish Sanhedrim, and in the 
place of the Most Holy or Holiest of Holies, where the 
high priest entered once every year to offer up sacrifice for 
himself and for the people. The further fact of there 
being no possible chance for any one to interpolate or 
change the Old Testament or Holy Bible is that after 
Jesus Christ made His appearance upon the earth and 
started the Christian religion, which was the new dis- 
pensation, the Jews not receiving Him as their Savior, 
putting Him to death as a criminal, besides making ev- 
ery possible effort that they could to stamp out and 
bring into discredit the people or sect of Christians who 
followed after the doctrine which He taught, and fear- 
ing that they might in some way attempt to change the 
Old Testament or the Bible of their religion, so as to 
more plainly show that Jesus was the Christ, or to do 



IMORTALS AND niAIORTAUTY. 63 

anything else in any way to assist them in establishing 
the new faith as against the faith of the Jews, the Jews 
took their Bible and numbered every syllable and letter 
throughout the whole Bible, so that it was impossible 
for any change in any manner whatever to have been 
made with reference to it. 

Taking this into consideration, and all well knowing 
with what tenacity and jealousy the Jewish people have 
adhered to their religion and ignored the doctrine of 
Jesus Christ and His followers, no reasonable person 
can possibly urge with any degree of plausibility or sin- 
cerity that there was any chance for these prophecies 
to ever have been changed in any manner whatever, 
and it would seem that this question ought to be forever 
settled in the minds of everyone, and that they would take 
all of these prophecies as truths. The prophetic books 
in the Bible are only sixteen in number, and so far as 
they are concerned, as well as all the other books in 
the Old Testament, as to their genuineness and truth- 
fulness, the silent history of the ages has spoken volumes 
as to their authenticity and genuineness, as well as ac- 
curateness at this day; for every monument and tablet 
of stone that has ever been found and dug up out of the 
earth, which has had an inscription upon it referring 
to the history of the peoples at the time when it was 
inscribed thereon, fully corroborates and agrees in every 
particular with the Bible. This has been a great benefit 
to the world and to humanity, in removing from their 
minds any doubt that may have arisen by reason of 
reading things which were purported to have taken place 
back in the ancient times ; for it is so easy often for men 
and women to voluntarily raise a question in their mind, 
especially in these days, as to the truth of anything that 
has taken place many centuries before, which vvdll, if 



64 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

cherished, have a tendency to make them skeptical rel- 
ative to God's Word, which it is very important that 
they should fully believe, as their eternal life is depend- 
ent upon that faith. Further, it assists them and aids 
them in having full faith in the Messiah, Who came to 
redeem them from their sins, as prophesied and shown 
therein, that Jesus Christ, as proclaimed in these proph- 
ecies, was born almost exactly in accordance with their 
prediction. 

However, the exact date, especially the month, can 
not be positively arrived at; yet we have sufficient evi- 
dence to show that He was no doubt born at or about 
January, running to March, B. C. 4, and died upon the 
cross on Friday, the day before the Passover, A. D. 29, 
being at least thirty- three years old, and that His Mes- 
sianic ministry commenced A. D. 30 and lasted some 
three years and some months. The most certain date 
is arrived at by the fact that the Savior was born before 
the death of Herod the Great; the date of that event 
is known with absolute certainty. Josephus tells in his 
History of the Jews that he died thirty-seven years after 
he had been declared king by the Romans, and this time 
is absolutely fixed at A. U. C. 714; and therefore, since 
Josephus always reckons his years from Nison to Nison, 
and this was the first month of the legal Jewish year 
and commenced with Nison (or April) and ended with 
Nison (or April), Herod must have died between Nison 

A. U. C. 750 and Nison A. U. C. 751, which is between 

B. C. 4 and B. C. 3 of the Christian era. Josephus also 
states that on the night in which Herod commanded that 
Judas, Matthias, and abettors be burned there was an 
eclipse of the moon, which took place on the night of 
March 12, B. C. 4; and Herod was dead at least seven 
days before the Passover, which, by the taking of the 



MORTALS AND IMMORTAUTY. 65 

Jewish reckoning, came in that year on April 12th; but 
Jesus Christ must have been born forty days before the 
death of Herod. This shows that Jesus Christ could 
not have been born later than February, B. C. 4, which 
must have been from the 15 th to the latter part of that 
month, or during the latter part of the month of Febru- 
ary; for it is shown that the angel appeared at night 
to the shepherds while in their fields and proclaimed to 
them tidings of great joy, that ''this day, in the city of 
David, there will be born unto you a Savior," and it is 
well known that the shepherds do not appear in the 
fields with their flocks until about the middle of Febru- 
ary. There is one more time fixed which we may con- 
sider worthy of notice as a probable time of His birth; 
this is related by the prophet St. Luke, who fixes all 
dates of His birth by the dates fixed by the preachings 
of St. John the Baptist in the fifteenth year of Tiberius, 
and that when Jesus Christ began His Messianic min- 
istry, the Savior was about thirty years old (lyuke 3 123) ; 
the fifteenth year of Tiberius being dated from the date 
of August 19, A. U. C. 767. Then Jesus Christ was 
baptized A. U. C. 782, though, showing as we have that 
the Savior could not have been born later than Febru- 
ary, A. U. C. 750, this would make the Lord Jesus Christ 
thirty-two years old when He began His Messianic min- 
istry. There is therefore good reason to beHeve that 
St. Luke dates the year of the reign of Tiberius from 
his association with Augustus as joint emperor in A. U. 
C. 765, a method of reckoning which no doubt did exist 
and would be likely to be used in the Roman provinces. 
Jesus Christ would then begin His public Messianic 
teaching and ministry A. U. C. 780, which date agrees 
exactly with the only authentic date of the Savior's 
birth. 



66 MORTALS AND BIMORTALITY. 

There is no chance to arrive at any probable date 
of the month or the week when the Savior was born. 
Joseph and Mary were going up to Bethlehem to be 
taxed in comphance with the decree of Augustus, and 
because Joseph was of the house and Hneage of David. 
At that time there were great numbers of pilgrims in 
and about the village, and there was no place in the 
inn and they lodged in the stable, and the Babe of Beth- 
lehem was laid in the manger. The birth and the Mes- 
sianic dignity were told by the angels, and at night all 
the inhabitants rushed into the little unimportant village 
to view the newborn Savior and to greet Him as their 
Lord. After thirty-three days, they took Him to the 
temple in Jerusalem. It was then that the great and 
good aged Simeon took the child in his arms and blessed 
God for sparing his life so that he had lived to the time 
when he could witness and see the Savior. No doubt 
before Joseph and Mary departed from Bethlehem the 
three Wise Men (or Magi; as recorded in ecclesiastical 
tradition, three kings) came from the east, guided by 
the Star of Bethlehem, and fell down before the young 
child and worshiped Him and presented to Him gifts 
of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. They take the news 
to Herod, for Herod was afraid he would lose his throne 
if the Messiah were acknowledged. The Wise Men, by 
the direction of divine power, did not give the desired 
news to Herod, returning on another road to their home. 
The parents of Jesus, being warned in a dream or a 
vision by the angel of the Lord, took the young child 
and escaped with Him to Egypt. Then it was that 
Herod ordered all the male children in and around that 
were two years old or under should be put to death, 
and his orders were carried out and the slaughter of the 
infants took place. After the death of Herod, which 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 67 

took place (according to the record of Josephus, given, 
no doubt, within a year) B. C. 3, Joseph and Mary re- 
turned with the child Jesus to their former home in 
Nazareth. 

There is no historical statement given of the Savior 
during his minority, except that related by St. I^uke, 
wherein he states that the child waxed strong in spirit, 
was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon 
Him. And it is further related that at the age of twelve 
years his parents took Him with them to the city of 
Jerusalem to the feast of the Passover. As they returned 
the Savior tarried behind without their knowledge. On 
retracing their journey to search for Him, and after they 
sought Him three days. He was found in the temple at 
Jerusalem, sitting in the midst of the doctors, hearing 
them and asking them profound questions that aston- 
ished them by His wisdom and the profound manner 
of understanding with which He answered their ques- 
tions. His parents took Him and He returned with 
them to Nazareth, and He was ever after subject to 
them until He took up the mission for which He came 
to earth, which was to save the world from its sins and 
open up the way of eternal life for mankind. This was 
the good tidings conveyed to man on His arrival. At 
His birth there was great joy in Heaven among all the 
angels, they exclaiming, "Peace on earth and good-will 
to men!" 

Some infidel writers, who have attempted to discredit 
the Lord's coming to earth as a God, have made state- 
ments without any authority whatever, that when the 
Savior was taken to Egypt to avoid the destruction of 
Herod, He remained there and was very highly educated 
in letters as well as the Egyptian arts and magic, and 
then, on attaining His perfect manhood, came over into 



68 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

Palestine and passed Himself off for a God. This is a 
most flagrant and unwarrantable statement, for all his- 
tory, both profane and sacred, has always admitted Him 
to be a citizen of Nazareth, and He is called by His 
most bitter enemies as well as His friends "The Man and 
Lord of Nazareth," and in many references writers all 
down the different centm-ies have spoken of Him as 
"The Nazarene," and without question he was a citizen 
of that country, as it is shown that the people of that 
country were well acquainted with Him, and His famil- 
iarity with that country shows that He was an inhabit- 
ant of that place for a considerable time at least. Tra- 
dition now speaks in the loudest terms of those places 
with which Jesus Christ seemed to be perfectly famiUar. 
Then there is no claim down in Egypt but what the 
Savior and His parents were there only a short time, 
and this is asserted to be a fact by those people, from 
tradition and from any and all history. Yet this is 
nothing; for men have attempted to find something that 
would bring discredit on Jesus Christ and His life, but 
have always utterly failed. But as time and ages go 
on He and His life grow brighter and brighter and more 
effective upon the earth among every nation and every 
people, and it is clearly shown that His kingdom and 
knowledge shall be forever and forever. 



CHAPTER V. 

Th^ Prophecies of the Messiah Showing the 

Divine Side and the Human Side 

01^ Jesus Christ. 

In the Old Testament the term ''the Messiah," or 
**the Anointed,'* is used of the many agents of God: 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 69 

of the high priest (Lev. 4:3), of prophets (Ps. 105:15), 
of Cyrus, the foreign deUverer whom God raised up for 
His people (Isa. 45 :i) ; but it is not kept for God's king- 
dom (I. Sam. 24:6), or expected (Dan. 9:25). So in 
Jewish theology it became the technical term of King 
and Captain of their salvation, whom the prophets have 
foretold. The Messiah in the first instance alluded to 
this King, but as this King is to bring to them everlasting 
dominion and happiness, they all thought the Old Testa- 
ment prophetic statements alluded to Jesus Christ. This 
Jesus Christ asserted and claimed, and also all the Apos- 
tles. It is not necessary to enumerate how often Jesus 
Christ stated that the Old Testament testified of Him 
and His coming and the works that He would do. You 
will find that He says that Moses testified of Him, and 
then all along through the New Testament you will find 
statements bearing out this showing. 

There are two lines of prophecy. They do not fully 
merge in the Old Testament, yet they do show Jesus, 
the Christ, the son of Mary, and yet fully show that 
Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Along one of these 
lines of prophecy is shown that the Messiah, the human 
deliverer, is the hero, the salvation of Israel, and the 
conquest of the world for righteousness, and to be turned 
over to God the Father of Jesus Christ, all depending 
upon this coming and victory; along the other line of 
prophecy it is God alone that the people are to look to 
for their salvation. These two conditions or prophecies 
are expressly shown to represent Jesus Christ in His 
dual capacity, the human and the divine, at the same 
time and in one and the same person. This condition 
or dual nature is not shown by different prophets, but 
is shown by the same prophets, and they plainly show 
His character in adjoining verses, and throughout all 



70 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

the old Scriptures both of Jesus Christ's natures are 
most beautifully shown by the great prophet (Isa. 9:1, 
with 33:21-22). 

The human deliverer early prophecies are shown right 
in the beginning of the human history, and at the same 
time first when God found that man would not submit his 
will to Him (God's will). Then it is shown that man is 
created pure in all things and in the image of God and 
after God's likeness, but having a will-power that God 
could or did not control, and then when law abounded 
man by his self-willed nature would not comply with 
these inexorable laws of his being, temporally nor spir- 
itually. The result must be that soul and tempo- 
ral death would both certainly follow, and God so in- 
formed man of these results, saying: "In the day in 
which thou violatest my law thou shalt surely die.'* 
Then at once there became enmity between the offspring 
of man against sin and all its results. Therefore God 
then promised a Deliverer, and said He would put the 
seed of the woman at enmity against all evil and its 
results. This offspring of the woman certainly at that 
time referred to and was a complete prophecy of the 
coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, Who represented the 
Righteous One, Who will put all enemies against man 
under Him (Gen. 3:15). 

This is the starting-point of the great promise to man 
of the sure victory of mankind over sin and degradation 
from a human standpoint or from a spiritual, provided 
that man does not voluntarily array himself willfully 
with full knowledge against God's will, and adhere to 
the side of sin and its results rather than to choose 
goodness and happiness. This same promise was con- 
ferred upon Abraham and his seed many generations 
after it was made; namely, that these blessings should 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 71 

come to all the nations of the earth (Gen. 12 :i, 3). God 
chose these people and intended to use them in bringing 
the whole world to Himself, and when God called the 
Children of Israel out of Egypt, the prophet speaks of 
them as the Son of God (Hos. 11 :i), which fully apphes 
to the Lord Jesus Christ (Matt. 2:15). Again, where 
the Lord God, as predicted by Moses (Deut. 13:15), 
would raise up a prophet Hke unto God himself from 
"the midst of thee and of thy brethren," which refer- 
ence was to the Christ who was to come. 

The next prophecy placed was during the kingdom 
and was to be the seed of David and that his throne 
should last forever. They must have looked upon this 
king who would rule forever as more than a human 
king, and some of the Children of Israel did look for 
a spiritual king, but when the Savior came in such a 
humble and unpretentious manner, they did not recog- 
nize Him as their ideal Savior. David's last words (2 
Sam. 23 and Ps. 2:45, 72:110) show that Israel had been 
taught and believed in God as a spirit and His spiritual 
promises being manifested in the Messiah, raised up 
upon earth as a spiritual adviser and Savior, but Israel 
brought these things to the forefront in unmistakable 
truth, splendor, and detail, which is shown in the Im- 
manuel's birth (Isa. 7:10), and the prophecy of the 
Prince of the four names (Isa. 9:1-7). Isaiah does not 
show that this Immanuel is to immediately reign, for 
before His arrival to discretion His land is to be forsaken 
and desolated by Assyrians (Isa. 7:16-25). He himself 
was to be born to show His people purity. Milk and 
honey shall He eat, as the land is in a non-productive 
state and His people reduced to herding cattle. Isaiah 
presents this Messiah as a sufferer and servant of the 
people and Jesus Christ himself said, "I come among you 



72 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

as one to serve." Also He is to suffer for the sin of 
others, and yet Isaiah asked the people to have hope 
and courage (Isa. 8:8). And at last at the darkest hour 
a generous light breaks forth upon the world (Isa. 9:1-2). 
And there He ceased. The Immanuel transformed from 
a sufferer to a conqueror (Isa. 9:6-7). Scholars admit 
the identity of the Immanuel with the Prince of Peace 
to whom are to be given the four names (Isa. 9:6): 
Wonderful, Counsellor, God, Hero, Father Ever- 
lasting, Prince 01^ Peace. In the second and ninth 
chapters He is represented as a great ruler ; also His Davidic 
origin is described. In the fifth chapter are mentioned His 
endowment by the sevenfold spirit of God (verses 2-3); 
His just government (verses 4-5); the transformation 
of natiure itself (verses 6-9) ; the gathering of God's dis- 
persed people (verses 10-16). In the twenty-third chapter 
(verses i, 3) a righteous ruler and a great human influ- 
ence are set forth as the new and wonderful age; the 
Children of Israel were all the time looking and apply- 
ing the meaning of this Deliverer to their then special 
earthly minds, and not to the making out of a great 
spiritual reform and opportunity for man to be redeemed 
from his spiritual fallen condition, and all this work was 
to be accompHshed some seven hundred and twenty-five 
years later. 

This prophecy of Isaiah relative to the Immanuel 
Matthew finds fulfilled in the birth of Jesus Christ of 
a virgin mother (Matt. 1:23). The angels' announce- 
ment to the shepherds no doubt alluded to the Immanuel 
and to the Davidic kingdom, that there shall be no end 
to His kingdom: ''For unto you this day is born in 
the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the I^ord." 
This announcement to the shepherds is plainly ringing 
out to the world the voice of Isaiah's prophecy of the 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 73 

birth of the Prince of the four names alluded to. They 
are alluded to, and no doubt the same reference as made 
in Isaiah 9 :6 is applied to Jesus Christ in the New Testa- 
ment, though, in conformity with two of them, He is 
addressed as God (Heb. 1:8). And He is also called 
"Our Peace" (Eph. 2:14, Matt. 3:16, 17, and John i: 
32, 34). In the manner of the statement of the descent 
of the Holy Spirit on Jesus Christ at His baptism, it is 
shown in Isaiah 11:2 that where Paul in Acts 13:23 
makes the statement that of this man's seed hath God 
according to His promise raised unto Israel a Savior, 
Jesus, he no doubt alludes to Isaiah 11 :i. Also Paul 
in other portions of his epistle refers to Jesus Christ's 
birth being of the lineage of David, and you will find 
also in Proverbs 22:16 where Jesus Christ calls Himself 
the root and offspring of David (which is in reference, 
no doubt, to Isaiah 11 :i), a shoot out of the root of 
Jesse. 

We find later that Jesus was being prophesied for 
a new idea from the worldly Savior (Isa. 40:66). He 
was to prepare them and lead them into the right di- 
rection, in verse 3, of him that crieth in the wilderness, 
*' Prepare ye the way of the Lord; make straight in the 
desert a highway for our God," the Lord. And again in 
verses 6 and 7, chapter 60, referring to the birth of the 
I/ord Jesus Christ, it is frequently referred to as the King 
to come, who shall be God's servant and carry the gospel 
to the Gentiles and do other labors, and, as has been 
observed, the Savior says Himself that He came as one 
to serve and minister unto instead of being ministered 
to; also the nation of Israel is called the servant of 
Joshua, ''His chosen." He is anointed and endowed 
with His spirit to be the teacher of His law and dis- 
penser of His justice to the Gentiles. Chapters 51 and 



74 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

52 undoubtedly allude to God's Son, and not to Israel, 
as some have attempted to interpret them; for the work 
of the servant of Joshua is much more spiritual, and He 
is a teacher and a prophet; His character is lowly; His 
methods gentle; a bruised reed shall He not break, and 
the smoking flax shall He not quench; He is to be the 
Conqueror of the Gentiles only in bringing to them the 
true light, and in doing this work He is to be rejected; He 
must suffer for the truth because of the sins of the world, 
giving His back to the smiters, His cheek to the tor- 
mentors, and His face to insult and spitting. He was 
wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniqui- 
ties; with His stripes we are healed; like sheep we have 
all gone astray, and the Lord laid upon Him the in- 
iquity of us all. This is all to have a real spiritual pos- 
terity and following. This is a different picture from 
the earlier prophecies, where they were describing the 
human side of our Lord Jesus Christ, and many of the 
Jews mentioned that there would be two Messiahs to 
come; but as God's plan opened up it was found that 
the Lord Jesus Christ filled completely all the proph- 
ecies that had been made pertaining to Him and His 
kingdom; that His sufferings only brought out His glo- 
ry and the majesty of His being and powers which 
surpassed any description of any king. Isaiah 53:12: 
''Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, 
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong." As the 
writer has inferred, the fulfillment of all the prophecies 
are accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of 
God and equal to Him, the Father (Isa. 6:1). 

The disciples used these words, ''Himself bare our 
sickness," and you find it says, "Behold my servant, he 
shall not strive." He referred to Himself: "Behold, I 
am among you as one that served." In the very earliest 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 75 

discourses and statements made by the Apostles they 
styled Him as "God's servant, Jesus"; "the Holy serv- 
ant, Jesus." Stephen also called Him "the Righteous 
One'* in an allusion to Isaiah 53:11. Philip plainly in- 
terprets Isaiah of Him (Acts 8:32). 

It is in His suffering and death, more especially, that 
Jesus Christ fulfilled the prophecy of the servant. How- 
great it is that Isaiah had, in chapters 50 and 53, seven 
hundred and twenty-seven years before, with very great 
exactness most beautifully prophesied and foretold the 
Savior's coming and rejection by men and by His own 
followers, and all the shame and indignities that would 
be shown Him, finally being led to the slaughter like 
a sheep that is dumb; showed his humility and self- 
sacrificing nature in His lifting the load of sin from off 
the whole world. His death sentence was decreed partly 
by the form of perverted law and by cruel tyranny; the 
death itself ignominious among felons. Again Jesus Christ 
set Himself in the same singularity of position over 
against the people, when He claimed Himself to be 
their servant. "I give myself and my life a ransom 
for many." "This is my body, broken for you." "This 
is my blood, shed for many, for the remission of sins." 
When John said, "Behold the Lamb of God bears the 
sins of the w^orld," this undoubtedly refers to the passage 
of Scripture in Isaiah 53 ; and then we will find it again 
in Peter's first Epistle, which refers to the same chapter, 
w^herein his reference is made to the I^ord Jesus Christ: 
He is the lamb; a patient, silent sufferer; the righteous 
for the unrighteous. There was no sin in Him, and He 
suffered voluntarily for our iniquities, and by His stripes 
the people were all to be healed who believed upon Him 
and follow^ed His teachings. When St. Paul wrote that 
Jesus Christ died for the sins of men, he no doubt had 



76 MORTALS AND IIMMORTAUTY. 

in mind the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah. Zechariah 9: 
9 is a confirmation of the prophecy of Isaiah's ''Prince 
of Peace"; for when the Savior came riding upon the 
foal of an ass, all the demonstrations made upon that 
occasion showed that He came as a prince, for a humble 
and peaceful purpose. It is shown by Matthew, however, 
that our Lord triumphantly entered into the city of Je- 
rusalem (Matt. 21:4). Also Micah 5:1-5 describes Him 
as a Prince of peace and as the Good Shepherd, but 
adds that He will come out of Bethlehem, the city of 
David. This is also set out by Matthew 2:6 and in 
Ephesians 2:14, Then again we find it in Jeremiah, who 
is a prophet of the Lord in the fullest extent of the new 
covenant (Jer. 31:33); also referring to the one with 
Abraham and David (Jer. 33:56), and proclaiming the 
prominence of David's house (Jer. 33:17-21 ), which also 
speaks of an undivided Messiah. The name here given, 
''the Lord our righteousness," will be found, by compar- 
ing Jeremiah 23:6 and 33:16, to be the name not of the 
Messiah, but of the people. Ezekiel 35 shows that the 
evil spirit of the people is to be replaced by the Good 
Shepherd, the one shepherd (Ezek. 37:24). The name 
which Jesus Christ takes to Himself and God's servant 
David is to be a Prince in the midst of the people, and 
He is to be their Prince forever (Ezek. 37:25). 

All throughout, the Psalms treat the Messiah much 
the same as the prophets with relation to His kingly 
nature and the offices which He will perform among the 
people (Ps. 2). Concerning the rage of the kings of the 
earth against the Lord and His Messiah, they call Him 
by divine decree "God's Son." This title, which was 
given to Him throughout the whole nation, at the same 
time conferring upon Him to be the ruler of a universal 
kingdom. In Acts 13:32 you will find the appHcation 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 77 

made by Paul, and no doubt this refers to the chapters 
quoted in Psalms, as also does his Epistle to the He- 
brews (5:5). Psalm 3:20 is a prayer for the anointed 
Jehovah, which could refer to no other person than the 
Lord Jesus Christ. Also in Psalm 21 God confers upon 
Him His favor, and grants to Him power above all 
others. In Psalm 45 there is a message addressed to 
some king, who is to represent the divine and invisible 
King. In the great version of the Old Testament, it 
there takes the words as addressed to the Lord Jesus 
Christ as well as the Epistle to the Hebrews. Psalm 72 
celebrates the righteousness and dominion, universal and 
eternal, of this king. Psalm 89:19-20 uses of Him Eze- 
kiel's phrase, '' David my servant." Psalm no describes 
the closeness of a king to God, who conquers for him; 
this being used by our blessed Lord Jesus Christ in His 
problem put to the Pharisees, and also appHed to Jesus 
by St. Peter (Acts 2:34). In Psahn no you can ob- 
serve that it ascribes to this king the office also of priest. 
This verse is used in Hebrews 5:5-6: "So also Christ 
glorified not himself to be made an high priest; but he 
that said unto him, Thou art my Son, to-day have I 
begotten thee. As he saith also in another place, Thou 
art a priest forever after the order of Melchisedec." 
The Psalms give to Jesus Christ the world-wide do- 
minion coequal with God and His dominion, and declare 
that it shall be for ever and ever, also claiming that it 
will have the visible representative capacity of God 
himself upon the earth. In Daniel 7 is shown a full 
vision of the Lord Jesus Christ in His human capacity 
and also in His divine nature and power, showing that 
His divine kingdom shall and will be an everlasting 
kingdom, which shall not be destroyed, which makes Him 
coequal with God in government with the spiritual world.. 



78 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

These are some of the titles given to our blessed Lord 
Jesus Christ: The Messiah, Son of Man, the Son of God, 
Immanuel, God's Christ or Anointed, King, Prince, Seed 
or Son or Offshoot or Branch of David, Shepherd, Proph- 
et, Priest Forever, Peace, Servant of God, Lamb of God, 
The Righteous One, whose work is to conquer the world 
for God the Father, and then reign in God's stead; be- 
ing God's representative to the people in establishing 
righteousness, justice, peace, and happiness among the 
Children of Israel, the Gentiles, and the whole heathen 
world, provided they will come unto Him, and to suffer 
for God's truth as a witness, bearing their sins and 
wiping them out in His death. 

Then again, in Psalm i6:io: **Thou wilt not leave 
my soul in hell [the grave]; neither wilt thou suffer 
thine Holy One to see corruption." (Acts 2:31.) And 
then again in Psalm 40:7-8 : *' Lo, I come: in the volume 
of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, 
O my God." In which the verses in front of it are ap- 
plied to Jesus Christ and His self-sacrifice. In the fol- 
lowing showing you will find they refer to the Messiah as 
a divine Savior, as a ruler, and establish beyond ques- 
tion His divine nature, showing that our Redeemer came 
and was called our God; a loving Savior, which is in 
the Old Testament prophecies, showing the blessed fu- 
ture that was possible for man to attain to, provided he 
will submit his will to the will of his Savior and com- 
pletely conform to His blessed and reasonable command- 
ments; further showing that He will reign forever then 
as their God on earth, and you will find ascribed to Him 
the office of ''the Lord our righteousness," and division 
of the day when God shall come to judgment in the 
clouds, smoke and fire and awful combustions, and up- 
risings among the people, showing great unrest (Joel 2 : 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 79 

2-3). This too, no doubt, is in reference to the coming 
of the time of the Millennium, and some Bible students 
claim to be able to figure out very definitely when this 
shall take place, although no doubt the best possible 
thing to do is to patiently wait upon the Lord and do 
His will until His coming. Isaiah shows beautiful pictures 
of His rule (Isa. 33:21-22), and the visible appearance 
of the Eternal at some great crisis in His people's his- 
tory, as their Savior, as in Isaiah 6^, where they show 
Him as being a treader of the wine-press, who was come 
up from treading the enemies of Israel, and their life 
blood stains His garments. 

With these manifestations of God you can take many 
passages of the Old Testament and they will show God 
in the human form, for the purpose, no doubt, of making 
Him appear more vivid and real to the people, whom 
He is seeking to reclaim from idol worship and draw 
unto Himself, so that they will be made to adhere to 
His divine directions to them in that of letting the Lord 
lead them out of their wretched condition into one of 
heavenly bliss. God is portrayed as being a mighty man 
in war, and as being like a woman in travail (Isa. 13:8). 
We are also to see in these statements that God makes 
His people's salvation His own concern and effort, and 
that He will accomplish this in power and in pain and 
self-sacrifice. His people's sins and sorrows are not only 
set in the hght of His countenance, but He bears them 
upon His heart. Isaiah 40:26 fully refers to this, and 
sustains God's full relation to man in a varied manner, 
showing the servants of God that through the tribula- 
tions and trials of His suffering people He sympathizes 
with them, and pleads with them to refrain from being 
against themselves, and asks them in the most tender 
and loving manner to be loyal to Him and to themselves. 



8o MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

and He is patient with them at all times, when they 
show a disposition to return unto Him and Hve. The 
Lord says that He is married to the backslider. II. 
Chronicles 7:14: ''If my people, which are called by 
my name, shall humble themse>es, and pray, and seek 
my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will 
hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will 
heal their land," from its cursed condition. Hosea 4:16: 
''For Israel slideth back as a backsliding heifer: now 
the I^ord will feed them as a lamb in a large place.'* 
I^ooking over and observing carefully all the foregoing 
references that are accorded to the Lord Jesus Christ, 
the reader can not help but be fully convinced that 
Jesus in His own person shows Himself to be God him- 
self in the flesh, as it is shown that He could sympathize 
with us as only a God could sympathize, and at the same 
time have the power to forgive us of our sins, as only 
a God could do, and then again to take the load of sin 
from the world upon Himself, suffering in a manner that 
no human being could suffer, and at the same time 
plead for our deliverance and forgiveness for our ignor- 
ance and willfulness in His rejection. Then again, when 
the Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead, then it was 
that His disciples called Him "My Lord and My God" 
and fully realized that He was the very God from Heav- 
en, Who made all things. The history of their lives 
shows that they all worshiped Him as a God, whether 
this history is taken from their own writings or from 
the writings left by the Lord's most virulent enemies 
of the pagan rulers who wrote about Him and His re- 
ligion, dating back to the time of some of His Apostles. 
We notice that the prophecies clearly show the human 
Messiah and also the divine God in the same person, 
both sympathizing with our infirmities, and the one 



MORTALS AND IIMMORTAUTY. 8i 

claiming the power to forgive us for our sins; for He 
said that He did this miracle that the people might 
know that the Son of Man hath power to forgive sins 
upon earth as well as in Heaven. The Scriptures teach 
us and show that all things are created by the Word 
of God (Gen. i and Isa. 40). There are other Old Tes- 
tament writings that further show and conclusively pre- 
sent the doctrine that with this Word is the wisdom of 
God, who is portrayed as a distinct personality by the 
side of the Word and was with Him from the beginning 
of all times, or, in other words, always did exist coequal 
with God, and shared His throne and His work in crea- 
tion (Job 28:12; Prov. 8:9). The book of Proverbs 
also represents the wisdom as the revealer of God to 
man and as seeking man for God in the most urgent and 
sympathetic way (Prov. i :g). These two great ideas or 
visions of the Word and wisdom of God as eternal and 
creative are set forth in the most vivid manner by St. 
John the Evangelist, where he says that in the begin- 
ning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and 
the Word was God. All things were made by Him; in 
Him was life, and the life was the life of men. And this 
Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld 
His glory, as of the only begotten of the Father), full 
of grace and truth. John 14:5-7: ''Thomas saith unto 
him, Lord, w^e know not whither thou goest; and how 
can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the 
way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the 
Father but by me. If ye had known me, ye should have 
known my Father also." See what Paul says in I. Tim- 
othy 2 :3-4 : "For this is good and acceptable in the sight 
of God our Saviour; who will have all men to be saved, 
and to come unto the knowledge of the truth." Here 
it is shown that our Savior is recognized as our God. 



82 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

When we undertake to try to place the I^ord Jesus 
Christ in any other light than that He was the Lord 
from Heaven, we encounter the greatest of obstacles, 
and we become involved in greater mystery than we do 
by taking Him at His word and accepting Him as our 
Lord and Master, who brought life and Hght into the 
world for all mankind. Look at the world of to-day and 
observe all of its phases and conditions relative to right- 
eousness and truth, and know that all this has been 
brought to the world by Him who said, ''I am the truth 
and your righteousness." Then you begin to see what 
the world would be had Jesus Christ never come to it. 
You will also begin to realize what this world would be 
if we were to take Jesus Christ out of the world, and all 
His influences. It almost makes one shudder to think 
for one moment of looking at the world of mankind and 
its life without Jesus Christ and His teachings in it. The 
history of man here would certainly be the darkest and 
most benighted condition imaginable. It has been said 
by someone that you might throw around Jesus Christ's 
existence all the mysteries you can, but take Jesus Christ 
out of the world, and you are involved in a greater mys- 
tery in attempting to explain the world and all its hopes. 
Reject the Lord Jesus Christ, and the world is an inex- 
plicable riddle; believe in Him and His teachings, and 
the history of the race of man is satisfactorily explained. 
The Savior's coming into the world changed all things 
pertaining to man inhabiting the earth, as it were, in 
that of placing man on an entirely different plane and 
course of life, as well in his mode of living on the earth 
as in his spiritual life. This is done to such an extent 
that one who looks over the world's history with a full 
understanding of its history in the days prior to the 
coming of the Lord Jesus can not but at once see that 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 83 

all things, as it were, are new; for man is living under 
an entirely different condition in every particular — even 
his time of reckoning has been changed, dating every- 
thing from the commencement of the new world or order 
of things brought about entirely by the Lord Jesus 
Christ's coming to this earth. It further has lifted man 
up into the realms of all life, where everyone, whether 
he be a believer in Jesus Christ or not, has a greater idea 
and more intelligent view of life than was entertained 
prior to the time of the coming of the Lord. This was 
accompHshed and done by the Lord in a little less than 
three years. 

We have had our great men in all the different ages 
of the world and in all branches of Hfe. Some lived for 
more than a century, and became conversant in the sci- 
ence of things and displayed great knowledge and wis- 
dom in all pertaining especially to the temporal things 
of man, as well as delving into the unseen things of 
Nature, many of which have been rightly denominated 
philosophers and men of great wisdom. One of these 
men in ancient Greece, who was known as Socrates, was 
recognized as one of the greatest men of his time, to 
such an extent that all the philosophers of his country 
gathered together and went to him and said to him, 
* 'Socrates, thou knowest more than all the philosophers 
put together." His reply was, "And Socrates knows 
nothing except to know that he does not know anything." 
And yet with his great knowledge, which has been ac- 
knowledged repeatedly by philosophers all down the ages, 
this great man passed away as nothing else but a man 
who has attained great knowledge ; and, as one has said, 
"We beheve Socrates, but we believe in Jesus Christ." 

There can not be any question but that every step 
you take in your life in living close to Jesus will relieve 



84 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

you of all that doubt that so often controls you and 
keeps you in the slough of despondency, which tends to 
make you uneasy and miserable in your daily walk of 
life. Having accompHshed the overcoming of these fear- 
ful moments by your fervent and faithful living closely 
to the teachings left to you by the Savior, you will at 
once be brought to see the silver lining behind all those 
dark clouds that have been overshadowing your life, and 
you will v/ith great joy, as it were, leap and bound, as did 
the paralytic when he was healed by the Savior. Jesus 
Christ broke the news to the world that He was their 
God as thoroughly and gradually as it was possible for 
Him to do and to accomplish His work and end it in the 
short space of time which He was to do it in; and not- 
withstanding that fact, vfhen His hearers, relatives, and 
friends heard Him claim that He was the Lord from 
Heaven, all His followers left Him except His disciples 
(meaning the twelve whom He had chosen), and He 
asked them, ' ' Will ye also go away ? ' * Upon one occasion 
during the time after He had been proclaiming Himself 
to be the Lord from Heaven, and that He was with the 
Father before the world was, and left His home in Heav- 
en and came down to earth. His own relatives left Him, 
and some of them were persuaded to think that He had 
become beside Himself, and His mother and brethren 
after the flesh went where He was talking and proclaiming 
and teaching to the multitude and called for Him by 
sending a messenger, who went in and told the Lord 
that His mother and brethren were without and wished 
to see Him. The Savior said : " Who is my mother and 
brethren? It is those who best serve my Father which 
is in heaven." Then and there they abandoned Plim 
until after the time had arrived when He was to be 
crucified, and it is related that His mother and some 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY; 85 

of His Apostles followed Him to Golgotha in a trembling 
manner; some of his disciples cowardly denying that 
they knew Him or who He was. It was Peter who de- 
nied His Lord and Master thrice. At the time Peter 
denied his Lord, no doubt he could have been and was 
as brave as any ordinary man of his time. He had 
shown himself upon other occasions to be a man of strong 
courage and great determination, ready and willing to 
carry out all his plans and purposes; but when he came 
before the officers and in their presence was interrogated 
as to his knowledge of his Lord and Master, he cowardly 
denied having any knowledge whatever of such a man. 
However, the situation greatly changed, after the 
Savior had been crucified and risen from the dead, as 
has been reported, and appeared to His Apostles forty 
days afterwards ten or eleven times, all of which was 
done in the open and in broad daylight, as recorded, 
excepting once, and then, after the day of Pentecost, 
when the Holy Spirit came upon them and more than 
three thousand of them were endued with the Holy 
Ghost, we find the Apostles of Jesus Christ an entirely 
different class of men, taking up the cause of their Mas- 
ter, declaring that He was their God and Savior from 
Heaven, and proclaiming the doctrine which He had 
taught them far and wide throughout the earth as He 
had taught them to do, and, so far as any fear was con- 
cerned, no history, sacred or profane, but what relates 
that they faced all the powers of earth in their deter- 
mination to establish their faith and place their Lord 
and Master before the world in His true light to such 
an extent that they were persecuted and destroyed and 
killed in almost every manner conceivable, and it is fur- 
ther shov/n that in their persecutions and tortures none 
v/ere ever heard to complain, and as it has been related, 



86 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

they even rejoiced in having the privilege of becoming 
martyrs for their Savior and His cause to such an ex- 
tent that JuHan, one of the Roman emperors, put out 
an edict that their persecution should cease, for the ex- 
press reason that it was shown to be a pleasure to them 
to die for their Master, rather than to be a punishment, 
and that he did not want to gratify them in their wishes. 
Further, that there must have been something most won- 
derful that overtook these men to cause them to be so 
persistent in standing by their Savior and Master is 
shown in the case of the Savior's half-brother, James, 
who did not recognize Him, as it has been shown, after 
He proclaimed Himself to be the I^ord from Heaven; 
but after He had ascended to Heaven, we find this 
brother, St. James, to have espoused the cause of His 
Master and Lord, and he became the first bishop of the 
city of Jerusalem, and history shows that he was a 
devout follower and believer in his Savior; it is related 
of him that, seeing the great need of the world for the 
teachings which He had left to them, he went into the 
temple to pray for the world to such an extent and so 
often that in kneeling upon his knees they became cal- 
loused like a camel's, and that he faithfully pursued this 
course until his influence became so great, because of 
his righteous living, that the people were flocking to 
him to such an extent that the authorities, who were 
at that time the Jews, became jealous and fearful of his 
influence and caused him to be ignominiously slain. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Teachings and Claims of Jesus Christ and Sending 

THE Holy Spirit. 

The I^ord Jesus Christ was promised and sent to us 

as a Messiah and Redeemer to lift from mankind the 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 87 

sins which we had inherited because of the Adamic fall, 
and He was likened unto us that He would fill the place 
in the world in like manner as a chief corner-stone in a 
building. Isaiah 28:16: "Therefore thus saith the Lord 
God, behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried 
stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he 
that believe th shall not make haste." You see that 
this Stone was to be laid in Zion, and is a tried stone 
and is to be a sure foundation. You will further no- 
tice that we must believe upon that Stone in order to 
obtain perfection or eternal life. You will find in the 
writings of I. Peter 2:6: ** Wherefore also it is con- 
tained in the Scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief 
corner stone, elect, precious; and he that beUeveth on 
him shall not be confounded." Paul, writing to the 
Ephesians, who had become the household of faith, said 
to them that their rehgion and faith were built upon the 
foundation of the apostles and the prophets ; Jesus Christ 
Himself being the chief corner-stone (Eph. 2 :2o) . Also 
in Ephesians i :22-23 you will find it claimed that He 
''hath put all things under his feet and gave him to be 
the head over all things to the church, which is his 
body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all." Also 
in Ephesians 5 :32 the Apostle says it is a great mystery 
about the relationship of Jesus Christ and the church, 
which he compares to man and wife, like unto the church 
and Jesus Christ. In the fourth chapter, verse 16 and 
following, you will find where the followers are told to 
stand faithfully together and maintain their faith, so 
that they would not walk in darkness as the Gentiles 
do, and then they will obtain eternal life. 

Jesus Christ organized the Christian Church by His 
labors and teachings and took particular pains to im- 
press it on the minds of His followers to live closely 



88 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

to its teachings. This church is not the modern-day 
denominational church, whose members organize them- 
selves into a company, subscribing to some particular 
creed or faith and erecting a building and dedicating it 
to the Lord and assembling there, worshiping Him after 
their peculiarly prescribed doctrine or tenets, which they 
claim to be the proper mode of worship; but Christ's 
church is founded upon Him as its chief corner-stone, 
and any derogation from the pure and strict teachings 
of Jesus Christ and strictly rendering to Him the posi- 
tion of being all in all in this church will not be recog- 
nized by its founder. Jesus Christ himself said, ''The 
time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: 
repent ye, and believe the gospel." Jesus Christ de- 
mands supreme allegiance to Himself and to no other 
person. Unless that is given, you can not be His dis- 
ciples. **If any man come to me, and hate not his 
father, and mother, and wife, and children, and breth- 
ren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he can not 
be my disciple." Jesus's prime and fundamental doc- 
trine was that the created souls should be drawn to 
Himself as supreme Lord of all, and there must be a 
humble submission or one can not be His disciple. This 
is so taught and demanded by the Savior that the fol- 
lowers of Him must realize that nothing must come 
between them and the Lord Jesus Christ, but they must 
make a full surrender of all for the love of God. He 
also demands that we shall surrender completely our 
v/ills to His will. You can readily see why this demand 
is made of us — because that He can not or does not 
control the will of man; and it is shown many times 
by the position that has been taken by Him in His atti- 
tude towards man, in His pleadings for Him to come 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 89 

unto Him and live, that He could not, or at least does 
not, control our wills. 

You will find in Matthew 6:10 where the Lord says 
unto us and commands us to say, "Thy kingdom come. 
Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven." Jesus 
Christ's church is hke the Jewish kingdom. It is es- 
tabhshed and based on the covenant and sealed with 
Jesus Christ's blood. Jesus gave them the bread, at the 
same time saying: "This is my body, which is given 
for you: this do in remembrance of me." And He also 
took the cup and said: "This cup is the new testament 
in my blood, which is shed for you." (lyuke 22:19-20.) 
So that when God's kingdom comes it will not come 
with a great display, for it is the embodiment of Jesus 
Christ in individual life and all those who when the 
Savior knocks will open the door and let Him enter in; 
for the Savior said: "The kingdom of God cometh not 
with observation: neither shall they say, Lo here! or, 
Lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within 
you." (lyuke 17:20-21.) Jesus also said: "If a man 
love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will 
love him, and we will come unto him, and make our 
abode with him." (John 14:23.) Jesus Christ further 
taught that in order to receive salvation and eternal 
life vv^e must have full confidence in Him and trust 
Him in all things, for without that simple trust and 
faith there can not be any complete union between Jesus 
Christ and the one who attempts to follow after Him, 
and the command is therefore, "If any man will come 
after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, 
and follow me." Also Mark 10:15: "Verily I say unto 
you. Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God 
as a little child, he shall not enter therein." And He 
also declared unto them that they must repent, for the 



90 T^IORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

kingdom of Heaven is at hand. How true this is when 
you v/iii rightly look at the Savior's commands and ob- 
serve how there is not a soul on the earth to-day who 
can not, if he will, have the kingdom of Heaven within 
his own breast, while placing himself in that attitude 
toward the Savior which He so fervently and lovingly 
demands. That faith in Jesus Christ and the keeping 
of His commandments by following His footsteps will 
take av/ay all your sins and bring you into a condition 
so that you will obtain eternal life; for Jesus says, *' Who- 
soever beheveth in me shall not perish, but have eternal 
life." "For God so loved the world that he gave his 
only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him 
should not perish, but have everlasting life." "And as 
Moses hfted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so 
must the Son of man be lifted up." (John 3:14-16.) 
You will find again, in John 12:32: "And I, if I be 
lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." 
This was no doubt in part the telHng to them of the 
kind of death the Savior must die. 

It would seem that no person could be mistaken as 
to the full meaning of the teachings of Jesus Christ on 
the question of the new birth; for He said: "Verily, 
verily, I say unto thee. Except a man be born again, he 
can not see the kingdom of God." (John 3:3.) Then 
again where He says that you must be born of the Spirit 
from above. This is so that you will become spiritually 
minded instead of being carnally minded; for the carnal 
mind is in enmity with God, for the carnal mind in man 
can not do anything to please God. For all things that 
come forth from the heart (if it can come forth from 
there) of a man not regenerated must be evil and sinful. 
"A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bring- 
eth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 91 

treasure bringeth forth evil things." (Matt. 12 135. ) All 
who renounce sinful nature and abandon that kind of 
life and call upon Jesus Christ with a loving and peni- 
tent heart of obedience and love will be renewed and 
regenerated by the Holy Spirit; for saith the Lord Jesus 
Christ: ''All that the Father giveth me shall come to 
me; and him that cometh to me I will in nowise cast 
out. For I came down from heaven, not to do mine 
own will, but the will of him that sent me." 

The doctrine of Jesus as to the kingdom of Heaven 
and all who have the privilege of obtaining that delight- 
ful abode must be so filled with love. For of the com- 
mandments the first of all is: "Hear, O Israel! the Lord 
our God is one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord thy 
God with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with 
all thy strength." This is the first commandment, and 
the second is like unto it: "Thou shalt love thy neigh- 
bor as thyself." There is none other commandment 
greater than these. This love is in Jesus Christ, so that 
if your love goes out to Him, then will His love come 
unto you, and then the sinner receives a blessing from 
on high. In order to be a true disciple of the Lord 
Jesus Christ you must forsake all things of this world 
and come unto Him and make a full surrender with 
your mind set on Him, surrendering your will fully unto 
Him, and the glorious things to come and the unseen 
eternity will be yours. Jesus Christ also represents and 
presents Himself as the great King of the kingdom to 
come, and there will be heahng in His wings. "But 
unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteous- 
ness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go 
forth, and grow up as calves of the stall." All nations 
must firmly yield unto the kingdom of Jesus Christ, and 
He will judge the world, and all the disobedient shall 



92 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

be cast out into everlasting destruction, and the right- 
eous shall be brought into life eternal. (Matt. 25:46.) 
Jesus Christ demands devotion to Himself from men in 
order for them to be His disciples and to become in- 
heritors of His kingdom. He likewise says: ''Whoso- 
ever he be of you that forsake th not all that he hath, 
he can not be my disciple." (I^uke 14:33.) You will 
notice and see that this is the same love and obedience 
demanded by the Lord God. (I^uke 10:27.) 

All through the Scriptures the same honor is de- 
manded for the Son as for the Father. And God does 
not demand that that honor shall be shown to any of 
the angels of Heaven or the children of men. All men 
should honor the Son as they honor the Father. "He 
that honoreth not the Son honoreth not the Father 
which ha^th sent him." (John 5:23.) Jesus also taught 
that His kingdom rules through God's providential over- 
sight over all His children, making no distinction in 
their endeavors to bring them up into a holy life; for 
He says: "That ye may be the children of your Father 
which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on 
the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just 
and on the unjust." (Matt. 5:45.) He taught them at 
the same time to fully trust the Father in all things: 
"Therefore take no thought, saying. What shall v/e eat? 
or, What shall we drink? or. Wherewithal shall we be 
clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles 
seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have 
need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom 
of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall 
be added unto you." Jesus Christ also teaches that we 
should have our minds upon heavenly things to such 
an extent at least that the treasures of our heart should 
not be on earthly things; for He says: "Lay not up 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 93 

for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and 
rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and 
steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, 
where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where 
thieves do not break through nor steal." (Matt. 6 :i 9-20.) 
In praying we should ask in faith believing, and also for 
things that are not unreasonable, and then only asking 
it if it be God's will, and in full faith, believing that 
your prayers will be answered, and God says that He 
will answer them; for in Matthew 21 122 He says: "And 
ail things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, 
ye shall receive." Jesus also instructs us that if more 
than one ask together for the same thing, the Father 
will answer the petition. ''Again I say unto you. That 
if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything 
that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my 
Father which is in heaven." This asking is all granted 
provided the petition is in accord with God's will. ''For 
where two or three are gathered together in my name, 
there am I in the midst of them." Jesus says, "Labor 
not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat 
which endureth unto everlasting life, v/hich the Son of 
man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father 
sealed." (John 6:2".) "Without controversy great is 
the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the 
flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached 
unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up 
unto glory." (I. Tim. 3:16.) At all times when you 
go to offer up your adorations to your Father in Heaven, 
Jesus Christ says that first you must forgive all others. 
"And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought 
against any: that your Father also which is in heaven 
may forgive you your trespasses. But if ye do not for- 
give, neither will your Father which is in heaven for- 



94 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

give your trespasses." (Mark 11:25-26.) The Savior 
also taught and instructed and says: "Whatsoever ye 
shall ask in my name, that will I do; that the Father 
may be glorified in the Son." (John 14:13.) Then again, 
'*If ye may ask anything in my name, I will do it." 

Jesus Christ was begotten by the Holy Spirit. ''And 
the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost 
shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall 
overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which 
shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." 
(lyuke 1:35.) Jesus Himself was baptized of the Holy 
Ghost, for when they were baptizing at the river Jordan, 
Jesus Christ was also baptized, and at the time of that 
baptism ''the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape 
like a dove upon him, and a voice came from Heaven, 
which said. Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am 
well pleased." (I^uke 3:22.) "Jesus returned in the 
power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a 
fame of him through all the region round about. And 
he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all." 
(I^uke 4:14-15.) Jesus Christ now commenced to per- 
form His miracles. "But if I cast out devils by the 
Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto 
you." (Matt. 12:28.) Jesus Christ also told them that 
when the Holy Spirit came. He would guide them into 
all truth. "Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is 
come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not 
speak of himself ; but whatsoever he shall hear, . that 
shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. 
He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and 
shall shew it unto you. All things that the Father hath 
are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, 
and shall shew it unto you." (John 16:13-15.) Again, 
the Holy Spirit will convict sinners of their sins and 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 95 

bring their sins before them. "And when he is come, 
he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, 
and of judgment: of sin, because they believe not on me; 
of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see 
me no more; of judgment, because the prince of this 
world is judged." (John i6 :8-i i .) We are not saved by 
works of righteousness which we may do, but according 
to the mercy of God shown to us by His regenerating 
power, renewing us through the Holy Ghost, which the 
Lord Jesus Christ shed upon us by His coming, and then 
we are justified and made heirs of eternal life. (Titus 3 : 
5-7.) The Lord Jesus Christ also promised to us the Com- 
forter, who would remain with us for ever. "And I will 
pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, 
that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of 
truth; whom the world can not receive, because it seeth 
him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for 
he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." (John 14: 
16-17.) 

Also the Savior taught the resurrection from the dead. 
"Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto 
the angels; and are the children of God, being the chil- 
dren of the resurrection. Now that the dead are raised, 
even Moses shewed at the bush, when he calleth the 
Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and 
the God of Jacob. For he is not a God of the dead, 
but of the living: for all live unto him." (Luke 20: 
36-38.) Jesus Christ taught that all should be raised 
from the dead, but some unto eternal life and others 
unto everlasting destruction. "Marvel not at this: for 
the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the 
graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they 
that have done good, unto the resurrection of life [eter- 
nal] ; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection 



'96 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

of damnation [everlasting death]." (John 5:28-29.) Je- 
sus Christ also taught and said that He would raise from 
the dead those that believed in Him and kept His com- 
mandments. "I am the resurrection, and the life: He 
that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he 
live : and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall nev- 
er die. Believest thou this?" (John 11:25-26.) Here 
the reader can see that Jesus Christ also shows that those 
that are worthy of His coming shall never die, but pass 
from life unto life. In speaking of His crucifixion and 
death He said that He had power to raise Himself from 
The dead; for He says: "No man taketh my life from 
me, but I lay it down of myself [that I might take it 
again]. I have power to lay it down, and I have power 
to take it again." He further says: "This command- 
ment have I received of my Father." This also fully 
bears out the statement in the foregoing quotation that 
He is the power that will raise others from the dead. 

Jesus proclaims to the world that there would be a 
final judgment at some definite time, and attested: "He 
that rejecteth me, and receive th not my words, hath one 
that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the 
same shall judge him in the last day." (John 12:48.) 
The Savior also tells us that in the end of all things He 
will come and judge the whole world with His holy 
angels. "When the Son of man shall come in His glory, 
and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon 
the throne of his glory." (Matt. 25:31.) You will ob- 
serve that He will come in the majesty of the Son of 
God, having all power given to Him in Heaven and in 
earth. "Verily, verily, I say unto you. The hour is 
coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice 
of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live." You 
will notice that the children of men are now receiving 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 97 

the blessings of the gift of eternal life from Jesus Christ. 
(John 5:24.) "For as the Father hath life in himself, 
so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; and 
hath given Kim authority to execute judgment also, be- 
cause he is the Son of man. Marvel not at this: for 
the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves 
shall hear His voice." (John 5 :26-28.) Now the Script- 
ures clearly show and the Lord Jesus Christ teaches that 
there is final destruction of the wicked, and that God 
can not be mocked in any service, for He reads the 
hearts of men, and judges from that source. "Every 
tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, 
and cast into the fire. 'Wherefore by their fruits ye shall 
know them. Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, 
Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he 
that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. 
Many will say to me in that day. Lord, Lord, have we not 
prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast 
out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 
And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: 
depart from me, ye that work iniquity." (Matt. 7 :i9-23.) 
They are judged according to the deeds done while in 
the body while on the earth; living in sin and degrada- 
tion. "For the Son of man shall come in the glory of 
his Father v/ith his angels; and then he shall reward 
every man according to his works" — some with eternal 
life and some with eternal death. (Matt. 16:27.) "As 
therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, 
so shall it be in the end of this world. The Son of man 
shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of 
his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do 
iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: 
there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth." (Matt. 
13:40-42.) These that are judged to be worthy to enter 



98 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

into the glory are to receive a blessing and a reward of 
eternal life. "Then shall the King say unto them on 
his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit 
the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of 
the world." (Matt. 25:34.) The saints are forever to 
be with the Lord Jesus Christ. ''And if I go and pre- 
pare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you 
unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." 
(John 14:3.) ''Father, I will that they also, whom thou 
hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may 
behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou 
lovedst me before the foundation of the world.'* (John 
17:24.) The separation of the righteous and the wicked 
is to be formally declared and performed by the Lord 
Jesus Christ. The wicked shall go away into everlast- 
ing destruction, but the righteous unto life eternal; for 
those that doeth evil in the sight of the Lord and will- 
fully reject all his pleadings to return to Him will never 
see life (that is, spiritual life) and be able to dwell with 
God in His spiritual kingdom. 

We are taught and admonished by the teachings of 
the Lord Jesus Christ to be holy in all our ways in this 
life — that is, to live that kind of a life; we are assured 
by the Savior that we are then in a condition that we 
can and do please His Father, Who is holy. HoHness 
is living a life up higher in righteousness than the world, 
following in the footsteps of the Christ, as He has shown 
you. It is the living carefully and closely to your Lord 
each and every day of your life, aiming at all times to get 
more closely to your Father which is in Heaven by your 
living in harmony with all righteousness, fulfilling all 
the law of God in obeying the commandments of love 
towards God and your fellow-man, and keeping yourself 
pure in thought and deed, and making yourself a shining 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 99 

light before the world for purity of life as much as lieth 
within you. If you need strength to assist you in this 
living, you can receive it through God's Holy Spirit; for 
the Holy Ghost will teach you, in that trial wherein you 
may be placed, what you ought to do or say to keep 
you in the love of God. How to live in that holy man- 
ner required of all those that ever expect to reach that 
goal of perfection necessary to obtain the eternal life 
will be furnished to you by that Spirit which God through 
His Son left to the world when He ascended into Heaven. 
HoHness is Hving after the admonition of the Holy Spirit, 
and not a gloomy and sad life, but one of cheer and joy, 
showing that your life is regulated by divine truth, and 
living above the world while we are in the world, looking 
to Him at all times in that humble, loving spirit which 
He has required of us. This life is the kind that is draw- 
ing you daily nearer and nearer to your Creator and 
making you more like Him. Living a holy life is put- 
ting into practice all virtue and purity, all the high 
duties devolved upon you by your loving Savior, and 
carrying it out to its fullest extent with your fellow- 
man every day of your life, as completely and perfectly 
as it lieth within you, at the same time calling upon 
God to give you the Holy Spirit to assist you. Holiness 
living consists in love and faith working daily within 
you to bring you to that perfection that will bring you 
that comfort and joy that the Scriptures tell you passeth 
all understanding. The Lord says to you, ** Those that 
live such a Hfe as to please Me and My Father will 
reap such a reward and such pleasures." Holiness in 
us is a resemblance only of that which is in our Lord 
and Savior, but we are to strive daily with earnest effort 
to complete it in us as much as possible, and then when 
we fall short and come to enter into the peace of all 



lOO MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

holiness, God in His mercy will add unto us the shortage^ 
and wash us and make us pure and holy like imto Him- 
self; because nothing impure can come into the presence 
of God and remain there, for God can not look upon 
sin of any degree, and can not permit it to remain in 
His presence, as all around Him is complete holiness. 
If you live that which is denominated a holy life, it 
always is an admonition to the world without any special 
effort of yours to impress people with your purity, and, 
as it were, you become a voice to them, when your 
tongue is silent. I^iving a consistent, pure, and honest 
life before God and man is one of the greatest recom- 
mendations that any Christian can offer to the world 
to draw it to the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. God 
always honors them who honor Him. Therefore, He 
will make your pure, consistent life a blessing to human- 
ity, by filling them with the desire to adopt the life that 
you have exemplified before them, which is approved of 
God. Every man and woman who will try to live up- 
rightly and offer up daily adoration and praise in heart- 
felt prayer to their Creator, asking Him to bring to them 
that pure and holy life, will never make any failure in 
attaining to that sanctified condition which will please 
their Father in Heaven. 

There is no pursuit more certain of consummation 
than the pursuit of a holy life, earnestly sought after 
in the manner that God has instructed man in His holy 
Word. The world often complains that the pure life 
which is demanded by the I^ord Jesus Christ is to such 
a height of perfection that it is beyond man to attain 
in this life. This is a great error; for God does not 
demand of man anything unreasonable. You will observe 
that one of the Apostles says that everything that God 
asks of us is reasonable, and admonishes His brethren to 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. loi 

present their bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable 
unto God, which is your reasonable service. You see 
that we owe that to Him, for His many mercies and 
blessings, which He brings to us daily. True holiness 
is the Hving in full accord with the will of God. To do 
this you have the assistance always of the Holy Spirit 
if you so desire it, Who, if you will permit Him, will 
lead you into all righteousness and truth. In order for 
you to fully understand God's goodness unto you, you 
should diligently search the Scriptiu-es to obtain that 
holy life, and then do work for God in His vineyard, 
that His name may be glorified, and then your Father 
which is in Heaven will justify you if your works and 
faith are from the heart; for our Savior was delivered 
for our offences, but was raised again for our justification. 
Hohness is Hving that complete fullness of God, or the 
God-head, and means perfectness, righteousness, purity, 
and a oneness with God, Who is all goodness. 

When John the Baptist, the last of the Old Testa- 
ment prophets, came in the name of the Lord preaching 
in the wilderness, he proclaimed the coming of the Just 
One, who would be the Lord from Heaven, and said 
that he (John) baptized with water, but He that should 
come after him would baptize with the Holy Ghost and 
with fire. This was to teach and show us the fulfill- 
ment of the prophesies that God would put His spirit 
within us and all should know the Lord. Then when 
the Savior was baptized, the Holy Ghost descended upon 
Him, and a voice exclaimed, "This is my beloved Son, 
in whom the God of Heaven is well pleased." This was 
a showing and an illustration that the Holy Ghost will 
come unto you when you become in the full love of God. 
The Savior told the prophets that when they were brought 
before their persecutors they should take no thought 



I02 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

what they should say or speak, nor should they meditate 
on the situation of how or what they should say, but 
whatsoever was given to them at that time they should 
speak; for it would not be they that were speaking, 
but the Holy Ghost, Who would be in them. It is 
shown that the Holy Ghost was also in John the Baptist 
from his birth, and that he was led all along by the 
Holy Spirit, Who will lead you in like manner as it was 
brought to John, for the reason that the I/ord Jesus 
promised that when He should go away He would send 
unto you the Holy Ghost, Who would lead you into all 
truths. It was also shown prior to the coming of the 
Christ that the Holy Spirit was not within man. *'But 
this spake he of the Spirit, which they that beHeve on 
him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet 
given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified." (John 
7:39.) The Scriptures show that after the Savior was 
blessed, He was filled with the Holy Ghost, and in that 
condition He passed through His great temptation. The 
further offices of the Holy Ghost in assisting all those 
who desire to become children of God are promised in 
John 14:26: "But the Comforter, which is the Holy 
Ghost, whom the Father will send in my [Jesus'] name, 
he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your 
remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." ''For 
the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to 
all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God 
shall call," shall be endued with the Holy Ghost. (Acts 
2:39.) You are asked in God's Word to be humble in 
spirit and look to God in perfect faith and receive the 
Holy Spirit. It was shown on the day of Pentecost that 
they which heard the word and believed were above 
three thousand; and when they had prayed, the place 
was shaken v/here they were assembled, and they were 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 103 

all filled with the Holy Ghost, and all they that believed 
became of one mind and filled with the Holy Spirit of 
God (which is the Holy Ghost). 

It is lamentable how many well-meaning people who 
are seeking after light and purity pretend to become 
discouraged because they can not to their own satis- 
faction solve eternity. You so far forget yourselves as 
not to know that all things are not revealed unto man; 
for in the wisdom of God He knows that man is not 
capable of receiving wisdom higher than he in his nature 
is so constituted as to be able to bear, and was so in- 
formed, many times, when the I^ord Jesus was talking 
to His disciples. However, when you become endued 
with that spiritual power which God will give you if 
you Hve closely to Him, that power will lead you up 
and out into that higher spiritual life where many things 
in yotu- probable present condition of spiritual life will 
come to you as you advance in this spiritual growth, 
which will all be made plain to you. We will illustrate 
thus: we will take God at His word. Who tells us that 
He is a spirit, and must be worshiped in spirit and in 
truth. Many people have been mystified and seemingly 
in a bewilderment of mind relative to the Trinity by 
not being able to fully comprehend the distinction be- 
tween the Godhead and the further fact that this dis- 
tinction exists and yet they are one in all things; for, 
to illustrate in trying to make this somewhat more plain, 
we will admit that the analysis of a spirit, in trying to 
reaHze as to what its component parts are, is an im- 
possibiHty with man; but, as an illustration, we will 
compare a spirit with ether: yet we can easily tell what 
ether is by a complete analysis of it. Common ether is 
an assemblage of molecules containing atoms in three 
different parts, as follows: four atoms of carbon, ten 



I04 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

atoms of hydrogen, and one atom of oxygen; and yet 
these three parts are all in one, and you must admit that 
ether is as much a substance within itself as anything 
that science can discover or imagine. It is supposed to 
fill all space and convey all light and heat to every part 
where the sun's rays go, which permeate all parts of 
the different systems of worlds except the inner parts 
of solid bodies. So we find in the Trinity, God the 
Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost; all 
having different offices to perform, and yet they are 
one in spirit, in mind, and in all other things; and when 
you have the Holy Spirit within you, you have God 
within you, or the Savior has made His abode with you. 
Then if you will permit this all-pervading power to con- 
trol you in your life's journey, you will be led into all 
truth, righteousness, and holiness, and become, as it 
were, as far as possible in this life, hke unto your God, 
in being one in mind and one in spirit. Where the 
command is that you are to be holy, as your Father in 
Heaven is holy, it is not meant that you must have 
perfect holiness as He, but you must have that Holy 
Spirit within you, and be filled with holy desires, ir?every 
good work and deed, working out your own salvation in 
the love of the Lord Jesus Christ, Who will in due time 
wash you and make you perfect, as He is perfect, but 
not with the same power of holiness. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Jesus Christ's Death and Resurrection. 

In the setting forth of Jesus Christ's death and resur- 
rection, necessarily it is all taken from and shown in 
the Gospels of the New Testament. This should be ac- 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 105 

cording to the reports narrated and stated by His Apos- 
tles and other persons who are followers and believers 
in Him. The doctrine which He set forth covers that 
which it was necessary for man to adhere to in order 
to attain to that perfect state which He intended man 
to attain. Much has been written and many views 
have been expressed as to the manner and death that 
Jesus Christ passed through while upon the cross. This 
took place about 9 o'clock in the morning, according to 
the reckoning as compared with the reckoning of the 
time of the day that the Jews practiced. He expired 
about 3 o'clock in the afternoon. Prior to the time of 
His death He was heard to say, with a loud voice, "Eloi, 
Eloi, lama sabachthani?'* which interpreted means, ''My 
God, my God, v/hy hast thou forsaken me?" It has 
been thought and stated by many good theologians that 
when this took place Jesus Christ was then without the 
divine quality, which had been within Him all the time 
after He had been baptized by John the Baptist; thus 
bringing Him down, if this were true, on a level with 
the weakness of mankind. And just before He expired 
He exclaimed, '*It is finished!" His head falling down 
on Kis breast. The soldiers coming in and seeing life 
in the two malefactors or thieves that were being cruci- 
fied with Him, they with clubs broke all their bones; 
but, exclaiming that Jesus Christ was already dead, they 
did not proceed to break His bones. One of the soldiers, 
to be more fully satisfied, thrust his spear into the Sav- 
ior's side, and blood and Vv^ater came forth out of the 
side of the Lord. All the early writers cite this fact as 
being most conclusive that Jesus Christ then and there 
had expired. The effusion of blood and lymph after a 
post-morteniy though rare, is asserted by some physicians 
not to be unknown. There seems to be no need to re- 



io6 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

gard the fact as miraculous. Opinions seem to be di- 
vided as to whether the water was merely lymph of the 
pericardium or serum and extra vasated blood. That the 
circumstances are not improbable, especially if our Lord 
Jesus Christ died from a ruptured heart, which is fore- 
told by the prophet in Psalms 22:13-15 and 69:20-21. 
''They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening 
and a roaring lion. I am poured out like water, and all 
my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is 
melted in the midst of my bowels. My strength is dried 
up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; 
and thou hast brought me into the dust of death." 
"Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of 
heaviness : and I looked for some to take pity, but there 
was none; and for comforters, but I found none. They 
gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they 
gave me vinegar to drink." 

There are many other references in the Bible of the 
Jews that predict the kind of death that our Lord must 
and would die. The reader must certainly come to the 
conclusion that there was no possible chance for the 
Savior to be taken down from the cross and prepared 
by the ones in charge of the burial for His body to be 
laid away in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea before 
his death took place. Then again, when the great stone 
was rolled over into the slot and the soldiers had put 
the Roman seal upon the fastening, should the followers 
of Jesus have had it in their minds to steal the body 
of their Master and Lord, it would have been an impos- 
sibility. Then again, when you take into consideration 
all the different stories about seeing the risen Savior, 
which have all been told in the most simple manner 
possible, it shows right on the face of their several state- 
ments that there was no appearance or semblance of 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 107 

their trying to practice any fraud or disguise the situa- 
tion, as they were all told, one to the other, in the most 
simple and plain, matter-of-fact manner. The tragedy 
of the cross and the resurrection of our Savior Jesus 
Christ had always been sharply and tenaciously put into 
question: by some, no doubt, with honest convictions 
of skepticism in their minds, and by many more with 
a desire and a willful purpose to put discredit upon the 
Lord Jesus Christ and His religion. That He established 
this religion for the salvation of the souls of man has 
been fully established; His coming to earth to lift from 
man the great original load of sin that man had inher- 
ited by reason of the fall, no doubt, was planned by God 
when man first became alienated from God. But the 
fact remains that the greatest of tragedies took place 
at Calvary that ever was enacted or ever will take place 
in the history of this world, from a human standpoint; 
for the great God that created the world that He was in 
suffered Himself to be nailed upon the cross and pass 
through that awful spectacle for the sole purpose of 
redeeming a lost and fallen world. 

When the Lord Jesus Christ exclaimed in His dying 
condition, "It is finished!'' and, as it is said, He gave 
up the ghost, and they took Him, preparing Him for 
burial in the tomb, they securely fastened the door by 
rolling in front of it the stone as referred to, and tradition 
says that this stone dropped into a great slot, and the 
Apostles claim that the Roman seal of government was 
placed there by the Roman officers. Then, in order to 
take all the precautions possible, they put a guard over 
the place for the purpose to avoid, as they thought, His 
friends having a chance to come and take the body 
away. They could then claim to the world that He 
had risen from the dead, as He had prophesied. The 



108 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

little band of friends of the Lord Jesus Christ, however, 
had all scattered with downcast and heavy hearts and 
feelings, believing that all their hopes in the Lord and 
Messiahship and of His power had come to naught. 
However, the next morning the women who most ten- 
derly loved and confided in all their dear Lord and 
Master had told them were first to appear, early, be- 
fore the dawn of day, carrying with them precious spices ; 
not knowing anything about the watch or seal placed 
over the tomb, they anxiously inquired among them- 
selves as their faith carried them to the spot where 
their Savior was laid; they wondered who should roll 
away the stone for them. They lovingly went to per- 
form this great service, for they knew that they were 
going to confer loving service upon their Master; and 
the ones who were foremost of this little band showed 
that they had not forsaken their Lord. After they had 
come to Salome, they found that their great difficulty, 
of which they were so apprehensive, was already solved. 
It was reported that the keepers of the tomb were fright- 
ened by some angelic appearances and they had rolled 
away the stone. The shocks of the earthquakes which 
had taken place, and which it had been foretold would 
take place, had all been fully realized and seen. When 
they arrived at the sepulchre, they observed two angels 
arrayed in white apparel, who requested them to im- 
mediately return to the Apostles and tell them that Jesus 
Christ, according to His words prior to His crucifixion, 
that He would rise again, had risen from the dead; that 
He would go before them like a shepherd into their own 
beloved and native Galilee. The women immediately 
returned in great excitement, telling no one but the dis- 
ciples. Their story to the disciples seemed and sounded 
to them Hke an idle tale or story, and they attached no 



MORTALS AND IMMORTAUTY. 109 

credence to the situation, thinking their women were 
excited and were simply mistaken ; but Mary Magdalene, 
who was more spiritually impressed than the others, 
hastened to tell Peter and John, and they received this 
startling statement. They arose and went immediately 
to investigate for themselves and see with their own eyes 
what had happened. John, outrunning his elder com- 
panion, arrived first at the tomb and anxiously looked 
into that open grave, which has been the hope and solace 
of all the world ever since the grave was opened. John 
was surprised when he noticed the linen cloths all neatly 
put together and each placed in its proper place. Peter 
coming up, anxiously excited, as he usually was in cases 
of eminent concern, plunged into the tomb immediately. 
St. John followed, and they both saw and they both 
believed, and the two disciples carried back a confirma- 
tion of the report made by the women so faithfully. 

No doubt the trembhng and the denying Peter be- 
came more filled with self-condemnation for his unfaith- 
fulness than ever before. No doubt all the Apostles be- 
gan to get a glimmering hope of faith in the I^ord Jesus 
Christ, and proof after proof followed until all the Apos- 
tles became fully convinced, and in fact knew, that their 
Lord and Master had risen from the dead. This fact 
has been demonstrated and fully shown by each and 
every one of the Apostles in their persistency and adher- 
ence to the lyord Jesus Christ and His doctrine, in ever 
always afterwards being ready to die with that state- 
ment in their mouths. Jesus appeared to Mary, and 
she thought Him to be the gardener, and she asked Him, 
if He had taken her Lord away, to tell her where He 
had laid Him. And then Jesus said unto her, *'Mary!" 
And she cried in her native tongue (Aramaic), " Rabboni ! *' 
"O my Master!" and then remained speechless. Jesus 



no MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

said to her: ''Touch me not; for I have not yet as- 
cended to my Father in heaven, who is my Father and 
your Father, my God and your God." She ran to them 
and exclaimed in excited tones, *'I have seen the Lord!" 
which thrilled the minds of them who heard it and has 
filled the thoughts of all His followers with joy and de- 
light ever since that memorial event. Neither was Mary's 
testimony uncorroborated ; for Jesus Christ met the other 
women as well, and said to them, *' All hail ! " They were 
terror-stricken with delight and emotion; and when He 
saw this. He said unto them, "Fear not; but go and 
tell my brethren that they shall depart into Galilee, and 
then they shall see me." 

The guards of the tomb at once reported the absence 
of the Savior to the Jewish Sanhedrim, who had given 
them their secret commission. They, of course, would 
not believe this story, claiming that the soldiers had 
slept, and that His friends had come and stolen the body 
away, which subsequent events conclusively prove was 
not so. Such a tale was too ridiculous and absurd to 
make public, although they have kept up that state- 
ment of the Sanhedrim during all the centuries, down 
until the twelfth century and afterwards, and set it out 
in the Talboth Jeshu. Also this statement was secretly 
maintained and used among the Jews in that way for 
the reason that, should they make it public, the soldiers 
being Roman soldiers, such an accusation against them, 
if proven, would have cost all the soldiers their lives; 
that is, if the Sanhedrim publicly claimed their charges 
and showed them to be true. 

The details of the appearance of Jesus Christ to Peter 
are wholly unknown to us. Luke 24:34: "Saying, The 
Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon." 
And they told what things were done in the way, and 



1 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. m 

how He was known by them in the inn by the breaking 
of bread. The appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ was 
always accompanied by circumstances of very great im- 
portance. Two of the disciples were on their way to 
the village of Emmaus. According to the best author- 
ity, this village was about eight miles from Jerusalem. 
These two disciples were indeed in a very anxious dis- 
course about the great tragedy that had taken place in 
the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ at Calvary, and 
a stranger joined them and asked them what was their 
great concern and what their depressing conversation 
was about. They looked at the uninvited newcomer, 
as is related, with much suspicion. The one of them 
whose name was Cleopas spoke in reply: "Art thou 
only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the 
things which are come to pass there in these days?" 
"What things?" He asked them. Then they told Him 
how their vain hopes had been dashed to the earth by 
their leader Jesus Christ, Who had been promised to 
them and to their people; how He had been crucified, 
and all His mighty deeds had ended upon the cross. 
Jesus finally made Himself known to them. Then again 
the fifth time Jesus Christ appeared to His disciples, 
which was on that memorable Easter day when ten of 
the disciples were sitting together with closed doors; for 
they were in great fear of the Jews. When they were 
going over the great news of the resurrection of Jesus 
Christ, He stood in the midst of them, using these words : 
"Peace be unto you." He stood before them with His 
glorified body, which no doubt transfixed them with de- 
light, to know that the Christ had risen indeed. They, 
however, thought it was a spirit that stood before them. 
He showed them His side and hands and feet. Then 
we find again the sixth time the Savior showed Himself 



112 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

to them. It was then that Thomas was with them, and 
when he saw Him, he fell down on his knees and ex- 
claimed, "My Ivord and my God!" This is the first 
time that we have any record of any of the disciples 
applying to the Savior the appellation of being their 
God. Then the seventh time He appeared to Philip, 
Andrew, the sons of Zebedee, Simon, and Thomas by 
the Sea of Galilee. The eighth time He appeared to 
them was when He told them all where He would ascend 
from. The ninth appearance of Jesus is unrecorded in 
the Gospels, and is known to us only by St. Paul's state- 
ment, saying that He had been seen of about live hun- 
dred of the brethren, some of which remained unto that 
day. He then again appeared to St. Paul when he was 
on a mission, going on the Damascus road to apprehend 
and bring to justice, as they said, some of the Christian 
followers of the Lord Jesus. Paul records that he was 
accompanied by others, and that a bright light appeared 
in the heavens, much more brilliant than the noon-day 
sun, and they fell to the ground in fear and astonishment, 
and he heard a voice saying unto him, ''Saul, Saul, why 
persecutest thou me?" Paul exclaimed and said, "Who 
art thou. Lord?" He answered: "I am Jesus, whom 
thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the 
pricks." When Paul arose he was blinded, and he was 
instructed to go with his conductor into the city of Da- 
mascus, into a street called Straight, and he would there 
come to the house of Judas, who would there and then 
tell them all what to do. On arriving at Judas 's home, 
Ananias v/as informed that Paul labored and prayed, and 
Ananias brought Saul to his sight after three days, and 
Paul was informed that Jesus desired him as a messenger 
to carry His gospel to the Gentiles. Then the Savior 
was again seen when He ascended from the Mount of 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 113 

Olives into Heaven by Peter, John, and James, who also 
reported they saw others with Him at that time, who 
they claimed had appeared to them in the spirit. 

As a fm-ther confirmation and proof that Jesus Christ 
was raised from the dead, and was to do so at or very 
near the time He did arise after He was crucified, we 
will here quote to you a prophecy from among the old 
prophetic statements, which you will find in Hosea 6: 
1-3: "Come, and let us return unto the Lord: for he 
hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he 
vnll bind us up. After two days will he revive us: in 
the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in 
his sight. Then shall we know, if we follow on to know 
the Lord: his going forth is prepared as the morning; 
and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and 
former rain unto the earth." However, this passage of 
Scriptiure has been interpreted by some very good the- 
ologians to represent the first three thousand years after 
the Savior's ascension to Heaven; that the first two 
days represent the first two thousand years after Jesus 
left us, and is considered the Gospel Period, of which we 
are now nearing the end ; and the third day that He will 
resurrect us represents the third thousand years, which 
is supposed to be the Millennium, for it is recognized 
that with God a thousand years is as one day, and one 
day as a thousand years. There is hardly a question 
of doubt but what we are nearing the time when there 
will be some great changes that will take place in the 
world's history relative to the spiritual welfare of man- 
kind. John 11:25-26: "Jesus said, I am the resurrec- 
tion, and the life: he that beHeveth in me, though he 
were dead, yet shall he five [again]: and whosoever liv- 
eth and beHeveth in me shall never die." Isaiah 26:19: 
"Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body 



1 14 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust : 
for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall 
cast out the dead." 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Celsus. 

We will set out here objections and criticisms that 
Celsus wrote in his book called ''The True Word" in 
the early part of the last half of the second century, 
against the Christian rehgion. Celsus was born some 
time during the early reign of the emperor Adrian, and 
was an Epicurean philosopher. He was skilled in that 
philosophy as well as Platonic philosophy. He reasoned 
in his writings a priori — from cause to effect. This phil- 
osopher was recognized by the early Christian Fathers 
as one of the most learned and far-seeing writers during 
his time, and he assailed the Christian rehgion in the 
most bitter and sarcastic manner possible, criticizing 
everything in such a manner as to show its complete 
absurdity if it was absurd. This book which he wrote 
was the first book written assaihng the Christian religion 
after that religion had become known to the Greeks. 
His writings have not been extant for many years, and 
the only book in which any portion of them has been 
preserved to the world is by Origen, who, about one 
century after they were written, wrote an Apology to 
Christianity and a complete answer to Celsus 's work, 
refuting and showing the absurdity of his arguments 
against the Christian religion; and in doing so Origen, 
to carry out his manner of argument against Celsus 's 
work, would quote whole paragraphs from Celsus 's writ- 
ings, showing what Celsus claimed and asserted, and 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 1 15 

then would answer the same. Had it not been for this 
manner of Origen answering Celsus, the world would 
not have a vestige to-day of his work, so that all that 
is left of it is found in the eight books of the ''Apol- 
ogy" of the celebrated Origen. The admissions made 
by Celsus in his writings in the book called "The True 
Word" are deemed by the Christian writers and investi- 
gators of great value in establishing the fact that the 
New Testament or many of its books were in existence 
and used by the world as early as the first part of the 
second century, and the further fact that Celsus in his 
argument attempts to prove the falsity of Christianity 
by taking his argument from the writings of the New 
Testament is what makes his quotations so valuable, 
and shows from his quotations and what he admits was 
therein stated that Jesus Christ came into the world as 
the Son of God to redeem the world from sin, and was 
crucified and raised from the dead and ascended into 
Heaven, as told and maintained by His followers. Cel- 
sus, Porphyry, and Julian, who was called the Apostate, 
were the most famous and virulent writers against the 
Christian rehgion. These are the originals, and all oth- 
ers since that time are considered copyists; for the time 
when these men wrote was so close to the time when 
the Savior was upon the earth that everything was fresh 
and easy to get hold of, as there were men, no doubt, 
living at that time who were associated with many of 
the Apostles of the Savior; for St. John hved to the 
year A. D. 98. This, you can see, would enable them 
to write with all the more positiveness and refute the 
doctrine, if it was possible to do so, and show that any- 
thing claimed for Jesus Christ and His work was not 
true, or it could be more easily estabhshed than at any 
time subsequent to that period ; and notwithstanding the 



Ii6 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

fact that these men wrote with much knowledge at hand 
and with such learning, using all their powers to over- 
throw the Christian religion and stamp it out of existence, 
they made an utter failure; for Christianity triumphed 
all over the Roman Empire and over all its foes and all 
the many difficulties that came up against it, and the 
Roman Empire and other nations of the earth have been 
forced to acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ as God, 
and His doctrine which He estabHshed among men. 

We will here give you the quotations preserved in 
the works of Origen as furnished by Lardener in the 
best possible manner that can be done under the follow- 
ing heads: ''But my prophet said formerly at Jeru- 
salem that the Son of God will come, a judge of good 
men and a punisher of the wicked." There are innu- 
merable ways, says the Jew in Celsus, who confutes 
Jesus, affirming that of themselves were said those things 
which were prophesied concerning Him. (This is con- 
cerning the persan who hath come.) But those were im- 
postors, as Theudas, and some others, who affirm with- 
out proof, who neither said nor performed such things as 
Jesus had done, as Origen well shows. **And," says he, 
''how could we, who had told all men there would come 
one from God who should punish the wicked, treat him 
injiu-iously when he came?" But the Jew in Celsus 
says: "For what reason could we reject him, whom we 
had before spoken of? Was it that we might be pun- 
ished more severely than other men?" The Jew adds: 
"The prophets say that he who is to come is great, 
and a prince and lord of all the earth and of all nations, 
and of armies." The Jew in Celsus says: "What God 
ever came to man, who did not obtain acceptance, es- 
pecially if he came to them who expected him? Or, 
why should he not be acknowledged by them who had 



i 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. n? 

long before expected him?" Afterwards the Jew, repre- 
senting their sentiments, says: "For we certainly ex- 
pect a resurrection of the body and eternal life, of which 
he who is to be says to us is to be a pattern; and thereby 
to show that it is not impossible for God to raise up a 
man with a body." But Origen makes a doubt whether 
the Jews say this of their expected Messiah. Afterwards 
Celsus, in his own person, says that the contention be- 
tween the Christians and the Jews is very silly; and that 
all our dispute with one another about Christ is no bet- 
ter than about the shadow of the ass according to the 
proverb. And he thinks the whole question is of no 
importance — both sides believing that it had been fore- 
told by the spirit of God that a Savior of mankind is 
to come. But they do not agree whether he who has 
been prophesied of is to come or not. (B. 2, s. 8, p. 61, 
62; s. 29, p. 78; s. 75, p. 106; s. 77, p. 109.) 

The Jew in Celsus goes on in this manner: "I could 
say many things concerning the affairs of Jesus, and 
those too true, different from those written by the dis- 
ciples of Jesus, but I purposely omit them." (B. 2, s. 13, 
p. 67.) The phrase "the disciples of Jesus" in Celsus 
means those properly called his immediate followers. 
From this passage it is evident that the fact that the his- 
tory of Jesus was written by his disciples before Celsus 
wrote against them was well known and acknowledged. 
These books are then allowed to be written by His dis- 
ciples; consequently, their genuineness is undisputed by 
Celsus. Afterwards he says that "some of the beHevers, 
as if they were drunk, take the liberty to alter the Gospel 
from the first writing, three or four ways, or oftener; 
that when they are pressed hard, and one reading has 
been confuted, they may disown that and flee to an- 
other." (B. 2, note 27, p. 77.) There is a clear ad- 



Ii8 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

mission of one ancient original statement of the affairs 
of Jesus, but it is said that some beHevers (probably 
the followers of Amarcion and Valentinus, eminent her- 
etics) change the Gospel history. This, however, affects 
not the genuineness of the original from which they dis- 
covered those alterations. The Jew in Celsus, says Ori- 
gen, shuts up that argument in this manner: ''These 
things then we have alleged to you out of our own writ- 
ings, not needing any other witness. Thus you are 
beaten with your own weapon." (B. 2, s. 74, p. 100.) 
Celsus says the composers of the genealogies of Jesus 
were very extravagant in making him descend from the 
first man and the Jewish king, and he thinks he says 
somewhat very extraordinary when he observes that the 
carpenter's wife was ignorant of her high origin. (B. 2, 
n. 32, p. 80.) As none but Matthew and I^uke have 
given us genealogies of Jesus Christ, this is an indis- 
putable allusion to them, not only from this consideration, 
but from what Celsus says of these genealogies. But 
more especially he quotes Matthew in the following in- 
stance: ''They have likewise such precepts as these: 
'Resist not him that injures you,' and 'If a man strike 
thee,' as his phrase is, 'on the one cheek, offer to him 
the other also'; that is an old saying, but there is ex- 
pressed in a more homely manner." (B. 7, n. 58, p. 370.) 
"Celsus asks why we may not worship angels and de- 
mons and heroes. Why, the only reason, he says, is be- 
cause it is impossible to serve two masters." (B. 7, s. 63, 
p. 376.) This is quoted from Matthew or Luke. There 
are questions in the Gospel in general, such as: "He 
finds fault with Jesus after this manner. He threatens 
and feebly reproaches, when he says, 'Woe unto you,' 
and 'I foretell unto you.' For hereby he plainly con- 
fesses his inabiUty to persuade; which is so far below 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 119 

a God that it is even unworthy a wise man." (B. 2, 
n. 76, p. 107.) "O Light! O Truth!" says the Jew to 
Celsus; ''Jesus with his own mouth expressly declared 
these things as you have recorded it, that there will 
come unto you other men with like wonders, wicked 
men and impostors." (B. 2, s. 52, p. 92.) "Moses en- 
couraged the people to get riches and destroy their ene- 
mies. But his son (meaning the Son of God), the Naz- 
arene man, delivers quite contrary laws. Nor will he 
admit a rich man or one that effects that dominion to 
have access to this Father. Nor will he allow men to 
take more care for good or treasure than the ravens nor 
provide for clothing so much as the lilies; and to him 
that hath smitten once, he directs to offer that he may 
smite again." (B. 7, s. 18, p. 343.) "Of that saying of 
Jesus, that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye 
of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom 
of God, he says, it was plainly taken from Plato, who 
says, *To be very good and very rich is impossible.'" 
(B. 6, s. 16, p. 286.) "He says it is a saying of ours 
that God was sent to sinners, and he asks, 'But why 
was he not sent to those v/ho were free from sin? What 
harm is it not to have sinned? God accepts an unright- 
eous man, who has practiced virtue from the beginning,, 
if he looks to him he will not accept.'" (B. 3, s. 62,, 
p. 148.) 

"Celsus," says Origen, "omitting those things that 
show the divinity of Jesus, reproaches him with those 
things that are written of him in the Gospels, his deriders, 
the purple robe, the crown of thorns, and the reed in 
his hand." (Matt. 27; Mark 15; Luke 23; John 19.) 
"Whence did you learn these things, Celsus, but from 
the Gospel?" says Origen; and tells him that instead 
of ridiculing these things, he ought to admire the verac- 



I20 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

ity of those who wrote them and the greatness of Him 
who voluntarily suffered such things for the good of men, 
bearing all with meekness and patience ; for it is nowhere 
written that He bemoaned Himself, or that He said or 
did anything mean and abject when He was condemned. 
(B. 2, s. 34, p. 8i.) *'He pretends," says Origen, "that 
Christians argue miserably when they say that the Son 
of God is the Word himself; and he thinks he makes 
good his charge in that after we have afHrmed the Son 
of God to be the Word, we do not show him to be a 
pure and holy Word, but a miserable man, condemned, 
scourged, and crucified." (B. 2, s. 31, p. 79.) This ap- 
pears to be a quotation from John's testimony or first 
Epistle. From the same writer he appears to quote 
when he ridicules ''the blood which flows from his body 
on the cross." (B. 2, s. 36, p. 81.) *'But you, what 
good or wonderful things either in word or deed did you 
perform? You showed us nothing. They called upon 
you in the temple to give us some manifest sign that 
you were the Son of God." (B. i, s. 67, p. 52; John 
IO-33-) ''After this he adds," says Origen, "to the sep- 
ulchre of Jesus there came two angels, as it is said by 
some, or by others, one only." He had observed, I 
think, that Matthew and Mark mention only one, I/Uke 
and John two. "But," says Origen, "these things are 
not contrary to each other. They are easily reconciled." 
(B. 5, s. 66, p. 268.) "But Celsus, who has often de- 
rided a resurrection, which he did not understand, not 
contented with what he had already said, adds, that we 
expect a resurrection of the flesh from the wood; per- 
verting, as is supposed, what is figiuratively said, by 
wood (or by a tree) came death and by a tree comes 
life; by Adam came death, but life by Christ. (I. Cor. 
15:22.) Then playing upon the word 'wood,' he endeav- 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 12 1 

ors to expose it in two respects, and says that wood is 
honored by us either because our Master was fastened 
to a cross, or because he was a carpenter by trade." 
(B. 6, s. 36, p. 299.) 

What he quotes from Paul is still more evident from 
the following references: "Some of them say, do not 
examine, but believe, and thy faith shall save thee; and 
the wisdom of this world is evil, and folly good." After- 
ward Origen quotes' from Celsus the same saying in this 
manner: ''Wisdom in life is evil and folly good." In 
another place Celsus says that we say, "Wisdom in men 
is f ooHshness with God. ' ' * * Whereas, ' ' says Origen, ' ' Paul 
says, * The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.' ' ' 
(B. 8, s. 24, p. 93.) "If," says Celsus, "these idols are 
nothing, what harm can there be to partake in their 
feasts? If they are demons, then no doubt they are of 
God, and they are to be believed and honored according 
to the laws, and to be prayed to, that they may be pro- 
pitious to us." "Notwithstanding the many divisions 
and the contentions which are among them," says Cel- 
sus, "you may hear them all saying: 'The world is 
crucified unto me and I unto the world,' which are the 
very words of Galatians 6:14." (B. 6, s. 64, p. 273.) 
Who that compares these quotations with I. Corinthians 
3:19, 8:4-10, and Galatians 6:14 can doubt that Celsus 
quoted from Paul's Epistles, as the writings of the dis- 
ciples of Christ, known and acknowledged by the Chris- 
tians in and before his day? 

Allusions to Peter and John may be easily traced in 
the following: "After these things," says Origen, "he 
speaks to us in this manner: 'Surely you will not say 
that when he could not persuade those that were here, 
he went to Hades to persuade those who were there."* 
(B. 2, s. 43, p. 855; I. Peter 3:19-20.) Celus charges 



122 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

the Christians with having gross apprehensions of God. 
He says: *'We expect to see God with the eyes of the 
body, and hear his voice with our ears, and to handle 
him with our sensible hands." (B. 7, s. 34, p. 374.) 
This no doubt alludes to I. John 1:1. "It is but a few 
years since he (Jesus) delivered this doctrine who is now 
reckoned by the Christians to be the Son of God." (B. i, 
s. 26, p. 21.) "Jesus was the first author of this sedi- 
tion." (B. 8, s. 14, p. 387.) 

Celsus frequently personates a Jew, whom he intro- 
duces arguing against Jesus. This Jew reprobates the 
Savior because he was born of a poor woman of that 
country, who subsisted by the labor of her hands. And 
he says she was put away by her husband, who was a 
carpenter by trade, he having found that she was guilty 
of adultery. Then he says, having been turned out of 
doors by her husband, she wandered about in a shameful 
m^anner until Jesus was born in an obscure place; and 
that he, being in want, served in 'Egypt for a livelihood^ 
and having there learned some charms, such as the Egyp- 
tians are fond of, he returned home, and then, valuing 
himself upon those charms (powers), he set himself up 
for a God. (B. i, s. 28, p. 22.) "Celsus on this re- 
lation asks, 'Was the mother of Jesus handsome, that 
God should be in love with her beauty? ' It is unworthy 
of God to suppose him to be taken with a corruptible 
body or to be in love with a woman, whether she be of 
royal descent or otherwise." (B. 6, s. 73, p. 235.) "It 
was given out by Jesus that Chaldeans were moved at 
the time of his birth to come and worship him as a God 
when he was a little child; and that this was told to 
Herod, the tetrarch, who issued an order to have all 
killed who had been born there about that time, in- 
tending to kill him with the rest; if he should live ta 



I 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 123 

mature age, he would take the government.'* (B. i, 
s. 58, p. 45.) The Jew in Celsus thus addressed Jesus: 
"What occasion had you when an infant to be carried 
into Egypt lest you should be killed? A God has no 
reason to be afraid of death. And now an angel comes 
from heaven to direct you and your relations to flee into 
Egypt, lest you should be taken up and put to death, 
as if the great God who had already sent two angels 
upon your account could not have preserved you, his 
own son, in safety at home." (B. i, s. 66, p. 51.) And 
he continues: **But if Herod was afraid that when you 
came of age you should reign in his stead, why did you 
not reign when you were of age? But so far from that 
the Son of God wanders about clinging like a necessitous 
beggar, or, as some may choose to have it rendered, 
skulking from place to place as if he were afraid of being 
taken up." (B. i, s. 61, p. 51.) 

"But that it may not be suspected," says Origen, 
"that we pass by any chapters because we have no an- 
swer at hand, I have thought it best, according to my 
ability, to confute everything proposed by him, not so 
much observing the natural order of things, but the order 
which he has taken himself. Let us see therefore what 
he says. Denying that the Holy Spirit was seen by our 
Savior in the shape of a dove, it is the Jew who still goes 
on, addressing himself to him whom we own for our Lord ; 
*You say that when you were baptized by John there 
alighted upon you the appearance of a bird.' The Jew 
adds: 'What credible witness has said that he saw this? 
Or who heard the voice from Heaven, declaring you to 
be the Son of God, excepting yourself and, if you are 
to be credited, one other of those who have been pun- 
ished like yourself?'" (B. i, s. 41, p. 31.) "Celsus says 
that Jesus, taking to him ten or twelve abject, vile pub- 



124 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

licans and sailors, went about with them, getting his 
substance in a base and shameful manner." (B. i, s. 
62, p. 47.) In another place the Jew in Celsus says 
Jesus set out with ten profligate publicans and sailors. 
(B. 2, s. 68, p. 53.) *'He asks us," says Origen, *'by 
what reason are we induced to think him the Son of 
God? And he makes us answer, 'Because we know his 
death was undergone for the destruction of the parent 
of evil.' And soon after here he makes us answer him, 
that we therefore have thought him to be the Son of 
God because he healed the lame and the blind, and, as 
you say, raised the dead." (B. 2, s. 47, p. 87.) ''Well 
then, let us grant that all these things were done by 
you, after which he instanceth to the tricks of the Egyp- 
tians and other impostors, and then asks this question: 
^Because they do such things, must we therefore esteem 
them to be God's sons? or must we not rather say that 
these are artifices of wicked and miserable men?"* (B. 2, 
s. 45, p. 86.) Grotius handsomely replies to this insinua- 
tion of Celsus: "That Jesus was in Egypt is known 
only from the writings of his disciples, who also say 
that he returned thence when he was still an infant. 
And if in the time of Christ and his apostles there had 
been in Egypt or an)rwhere else any magical art by 
which the blind might be made to see and the dumb to 
speak and all kinds of maladies might be healed on a 
sudden, as they were by Jesus Christ, the emperors 
Tiberius and Nero, and others who were very curious 
and inquisitive, would have spared no cost to obtain 
those arts." (Grotius, "DeVeritate," B. 5, s. 3.) 

We will here quote Origen's remarks on Celsus com- 
paring the predictions of Jesus: *'He that finds fault 
with the disciples as if it were their affliction that he 
foresaw and foretold the things which befell him. But 



^nIortals and immortality. 125 

that this is true we can show, whether Celsus will or not ; 
for we can allege many other things foretold by our Sa- 
vior which happened to the Christians, his followers, in 
after times. Who can forbear to admire these words? 
'And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for 
my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gen- 
tiles.' (Matt. 10:18.) And who that shall in his mind 
place himself near Jesus must not wonder when he 
hears him say: 'And this gospel shall be preached in 
the whole world, for the testimony of them and to the 
Gentiles.' '* (Matt. 24 :i4.) And yet it has been fulfilled, 
and the gospel of Jesus Christ has been preached to all 
men under the heavens, Greeks and Barbarians, wise 
and unwise; for the Word has been preached with such 
power that it has subdued all mankind, nor is there any 
sort of men that have refused to accept the doctrine of 
Jesus. And let the Jew in Celsus, who denies that Jesus 
foresaw what would happen to Himself, consider how it 
should come to pass that when Jerusalem was standing 
and the Jewish worship was performed in all its splendor, 
Jesus should foretell all that would happen to it from the 
Romans. Nor can they say that the disciples preached 
the doctrine of the gospel by word of mouth only, and 
did not dehver to their disciples any written memories 
concerning Jesus; but in them it is written, "When ye 
shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know 
that the desolation thereof is nigh." (Luke 21 :20.) There 
were then no armies near Jerusalem to surround it and 
besiege it. The first began under Nero and continued 
to Vespasian, whose son Titus leveled Jerusalem with 
the ground. "But Celsus says the disciples of Jesus, 
the thing being too manifest to be denied by them, have 
bethought themselves to say that he foreknew all these 
things, but they are very weak in thinking to vindicate 



126 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

Jesus by writing these things of him. As if one should 
affirm a man to be righteous and show him to be wicked, 
say he is a good man and show that he has committed 
murder; say he is immortal and show him dead (this 
last is the point which he is arguing; the other instances 
are for illustration); prefacing, however, continually, 
that he foreknew all things. For neither do you say 
that he seemed to wicked man to suffer these things 
when he did not suffer, but you openly and expressly 
say that he did suffer." (B. 2, s. 13, p. 67.) ''What 
god or demon or wise man who foresaw that such things 
were to happen him would not have avoided them if 
he could and not fall under the evils he foresaw? If 
he foresaw who should betray him and who should deny 
him, how comes it to pass that they did not fear him 
as a god, so that the one should not dare to betray him 
nor the other to deny him? But they betrayed him and 
denied him, so Httle did they regard him." ''It was 
God, ' ' says Celsus, ' ' who foretold these things. Therefore 
there was a necessity that they should come to pass. 
God, therefore, compelled his own disciples and prophets, 
with whom he ate and drank, to be wicked and abomin- 
able, for whose welfare above all others he ought to have 
been concerned. Never did man betray another with 
whom he sat at table. Here he who sits at table with 
God betrays him; and, which is still worse, the God 
himself lays snares for those who sit at table with him, 
making them impious traitors." "Celsus," says Origen, 
"thinks that what has been foretold comes to pass be- 
cause it has been foretold, to which we can by no means 
assent; for we do not say that he who foretells some- 
thing future is the cause of its coming to pass, but 
whatever is future will come to pass, although it was 
not foretold, and therefore he who has the gift of fore- 



^lORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 127 

knowledge foretells it." If He thought fit to undergo 
such things, and if in obedience to the Father He 
suffered death, it is apparent that they could not be 
painful to Him, He being a god and consenting to them. 
Why then does He lament and bewail and pray that the 
fear of destruction may be removed, saying to this pur- 
pose, " O Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass away" ? 
(Matt. 27:39.) ''Why did he not now at least (when 
condemned), if not before, deliver himself from this ig- 
nominy and do justice upon them who reviled both him 
and his Father?" (B. 2, s. 23, p. 75.) "Celsus," as 
Origen says, ''selecting some passages out of the gospel 
with a design to expose them, reproaches Jesus with the 
gall and the vinegar, as if he was mighty eager to drink 
and was not able patiently to endure thirst, which com- 
mon people often bear contentedly." (B. 2, s. 35, p. 81.) 
"They who conversed with him when alive and 
heard his voice and followed him as their master, when 
they saw him under punishment and dying, were so far 
from dying with him or for him or being induced to 
despise suffering that they denied they were his disci- 
ples, but nowadays you die with him. But let us con- 
sider whether anyone who has really died ever arose again 
in the same body; unless you think that the stories of 
others are indeed as well as seem to be fables; whilst 
your fable is probable and credible; because of his 
voice on the cross when he expired and the earthquake 
and the darkness, and because when he was alive he 
could not defend himself, but after he was dead he arose 
and showed the marks of his punishment, and how his 
hands had been pierced. But who saw all this? Why, 
a distracted woman, as you say, and one or two more 
of the same imposture, and some dreamers who fancied 
they saw things as they desired to have them, the same 



128 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

as has happened to innumerable people." (B. 2, s. 55, 
p. 94.) "But Celsus says, if you would make manifest 
his divine power, he should have shown himself to them 
that derided him and to him that condemned him, and 
indeed to all, for surely he had died, and, as you say, 
was a god." (B. 2, s. 67, p. loi.) ''When he was 
neglected in the body, he was continually preaching to 
all men; but when he should have been given full as- 
surance to all men, he shows himself privately to one 
woman and his associates." Again he says: "When he 
was punished, he was seen by all, but when risen, by 
one; the contrary to which ought rather to have been. 
If he would be hid, why was there a voice from Heaven 
declaring him to be the Son of God? (Matt. 17:5.) 
And if he would not be hid, why did he suffer, and why 
did he die?" (B. 2, s. 70, p. 104.) 

Celsus now discusses Christian principles. "I,et us 
now see," says Origen, "how he affects to lessen us with 
regard to our moral doctrine, saying that it is only and 
the same with that of the other philosophers and con- 
tains in it nothing weighty or new." He also says that 
others as well as Christians had disallowed the divinity 
of gods made with hands, forasmuch as oftentimes they 
were formed by wicked men. (B. i, s. 4, 5, p. 6.) He 
says the same things are better taught by the Greeks 
and without the threatenings of God or His Son. And 
that Plato did not pretend to come from Heaven and 
declare such things. (B. 6, s. i, p. 275.) "Celsus thinks 
that we by worshiping one that was apprehended and 
died do much the same thing with the Getae, who wor- 
shiped Zamolxis, and the Cilicians, who worshiped Mop- 
sus." "Again he says of us, that we laugh at those who 
worship Jupiter because his tomb is shown in Crete. 
Nevertheless we worship one that was buried." (B. 3, 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 129 

s. 34, p. 131.) He argues against the resurrection again 
in this manner : ''But that is another absurdity of theirs, 
that when God shall throw a fire on the world and all 
other things shall be destroyed, they alone shall remain ; 
and that not only the living, but they also who had been 
ever so long dead, shall come forth out of the earth in 
their own bodies (or in the same flesh), which is no 
other than the hope of worms. For what soul of man 
would desire a petrified body? Nor is this doctrine of 
yours agreed to by all Christians, for some of you rejected 
it as impure and abominable and impossible; for how 
is it possible that a body which has been entirely cor- 
rupted should return to its own nature and to its ownt 
primitive constitution which it has once lost? When 
they are able to make no answer to this, they fly to 
that absurd refuge, that all things are possible with God. 
But neither can God do anything that is shameful, nor 
will He do that which is contrary to nature. Nor be- 
cause you perversely desire anything. Is God therefore 
able to do it? Or is it supposed that He will do it? 
For God is not the author of extravagant desires, not 
of any unbecoming disorders, but of what is right and 
fit. God may give everlasting fife to the soul, but dead 
bodies, as HeracHtus says, are more contemptible than 
dung. To make flesh full of filthiness not fit to be 
named eternal is a thing so unreasonable that God 
neither can nor will do it; for He Himself is the reason 
of all things in nature, and therefore can no more do 
anything contrary to reason than contrary to Himself." 
(B. 4, s. 14, p. 240.) "It hence appears that Christians 
then expected a change or resurrection of the Hving and 
dead at the end of the world or the dissolution of this 
State of things according to what St. Paul writes." (I. Cor. 
15-51-545 I- Thess. 4:13, 17.) "When Celsus says that 



I30 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

Christians were not all agreed about the doctrine of the 
resurrection, it may be doubtful whether he intends some 
of his own time, or whether he refers to I. Cor. 15:12 
and the following context: 'Now if Christ be preached 
that he arose from the dead, how say some among you 
that there is no resurrection of the dead?' But, says 
Celsus, omitting things that might be alleged against 
what they say of their Master, let us allow him to be 
truly an angel. Is he the first and only one that has 
ever come? Or have there been others before? If they 
should say he only, they are easily convicted of false- 
hood. For they say that others have often come; and 
in particular there came an angel to his sepulchre (some 
say one, others say two), to tell the woman he was risen; 
for the Son of God, it seems, could not open the sepul- 
chre, but wanted another to remove the stone. And 
there came also an angel and appeared to the carpenter 
relative to the Savior being born, and another angel to 
direct them to take the child and flee, and what need is 
there to reckon up particularly all that were sent to 
Moses and others?" (B. 5, s. 52, p. 265.) ''The de- 
sign of this argument is to draw off the Christians from 
a peculiar veneration of Jesus. He reminds them, there- 
fore, that there had been, even according to themselves, 
many other messengers from God whom they might re- 
spect as well as him. From this passage we learn that 
the main point with Christians was a faith in Jesus, 
whom they esteemed their Master: nor would they for- 
sake him upon any account." "The Jew in Celsus," 
says Origen, "blames the Christians for alleging the 
prophets had foretold the things concerning Jesus; where- 
as, he says, the prophecies may be applied to many 
others more probable than Jesus." (B. 7, s. i, 2.) 



IMORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 131 

References of^ Celsus Relative to the Progress of 
THE Christian Religion. 
*'Thus, says Celsus, they were few in number, and 
they agreed (or were of one mind). But being increased 
and spread abroad, they divided again and again, and 
every one will have a party of his own, which is what 
they were disposed to of old." (B. 3, s. 10.) "I can 
not but think that Celsus has an eye to some things in 
the Acts of the Apostles, where the wonderful unanimity 
of the first Christians is recorded." (Acts 2:44-47; 4: 
32-37.) In his time there were many sects and divisions 
among them, he says. He adds, ''which they were dis- 
posed to of old," or from the beginning. He may refer 
to the early division in the Church of Corinth (I. Cor. 
1:11-17; 3:3-6; 11:17-18), and perhaps to some of St. 
Paul's exhortations to concord and harmony. He may 
refer likewise to contentions about the method of receiv- 
ing the Gentile converts (Acts 15 and other places) ; for 
it appears to me very probable that he has an eye to 
some things recorded in the New Testament. However, 
he owns that the Christians are now much increased, 
and, with regard to the divisions which were among 
them, it may be observed that they were foretold by 
Christ's Apostles. But such things are not the fault of 
of the gospel itself, but of men; nor is perfection to be 
attained or expected in this world. Origen says : "Very 
well; there never was anything useful and considerable 
about which men have not differed. In medicine, in 
philosophy, among Jews, Greeks, and Barbarians, there 
are different sects and opinions." '' Celsus," says Ori- 
gen, "brings in his fictitious person of a Jew, bespeaking 
the Jewish behevers in this manner: 'What ails you, 
fellow-citizens, that you left the law of your country and, 
seduced by him to whom we spoke just now, you have 



132 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

deserted us to go to another name and another way of 
living? Again, when we had taken and punished him 
who led you about like brute beasts, you have not- 
withstanding forsaken the law of your country. Now 
can you begin upon our sacred books and afterwards 
disregard them when you have no other foundation but 
our law?'" (B. 2, s. i, p. 57; s. 4, p. 59.) 

"The first head of accusation with Celsus against 
Christianity," says Origen at the beginning of his work, 
"is, that Christians secretly held assemblies contrary to 
law." (B. I, s. I, p. 4.) Origen supposeth him to refer 
particularly to their agapcB, or love-feasts. I should think 
he might intend all their assemblies in general for divine 
worship. '* Afterwards," says Origen, "he speaks of the 
Christian forming and teaching these thing which are 
agreeable to their sentiments privately; and that there- 
in they did not act without reason for avoiding the 
punishment of death hanging over them. And he com- 
pareth their dangers to the dangers to which men have 
been liable on account of philosophy; and he instanceth 
particularly in the case of Socrates ; he might have added 
Pythagoras, and other philosophers." (B. i, s. 3, p. 5.) 
"We saw before how Celsus ridiculed the Christians^ 
saying, * But how you die with him ! ' Afterwards in an- 
other place he thus insults them : ' Do you not see, good 
sir, how any man that will may not only blaspheme your 
demon, but drive him away from earth and the sea and 
from every quarter of the world under heaven, and binding 
you, his sacred image, and crucifying you, and your demon, 
or, as you say, the Son of God, gave you no help. And 
afterwards if any one of you absconds and hides himself, 
he is sought for to be punished with death.'" (B. 8, 
S. 39. P 424.) "We go on. The Jews, therefore, says 
Celsus, being a distinct nation and having the proper 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 133 

laws of their country which they still carry about with 
them, together with their reHgion, such as it is. However, 
those of their country act like other men, forasmuch as 
all follow the institutions of their own country wherever 
they are. And that is reasonable enough, because dif- 
ferent laws have been framed by different people. And 
it is fit that those things should be observed which have 
been estabHshed by public authority, nor would it be 
just to abrogate those laws which have been enacted 
from the beginning in every country; but if another 
appears, I should ask them whence they came and what 
country laws they have for their rule? They will an- 
swer: 'None at all.' For they descend from the same 
original and they have received their master and leader 
from the same country ; and yet they have revolted from 
the Jews.'' (B. 5, s. 25, p. 247.) 

Now Celsus accuses the Christians of establishing or 
trying to estabHsh their religion by magical practices. 
We saw before how Celsus said that Jesus had learned 
the Egyptian arts, and, vaunting himself upon them, had 
set himself up for a God. And in some other places he 
has been ready to have recourse to magic in order to 
account for the works said to be done by our Savior. 
Now I would observe what he says of Christians to the 
like purpose. ''After this,'* says Origen, " I do not know 
for what reason Celsus says that the Christians seem to 
be well skilled [or very mighty] in the names and in- 
vocations of certain demons." (B. i, s. 6, p. 7.) Origen 
supposeth that Celsus there refers to those who exor- 
cised or expelled demons, but says that in so doing 
Christians made use of no other name but that of Jesus 
and the rehearsal of some parts of His history. "Celsus 
says he had seen with some presbyters of our religion 
books, in a barbarous language, containing the names 



134 MORTALS AND IMMORTAUTY. 

of demons and other charms; and he says that those 
presbyters of our reHgion profess nothing good, but every- 
thing hurtful to mankind." (B. 3, s. 40, p. 302.) This, 
as well as somewhat else said before, Origen says is down- 
right fiction. *'And they say that all those stories are 
confuted by all who have conversed with Christians, who 
never heard of such things practiced by them. How- 
ever, this charge of magic against the Christians may be 
reckoned in argument that there were some uncommon 
things done by them at this time, and is often affirmed 
by Origen, as well as by other ecclesiastical writers; but 
not to the detriment of mankind, as Celsus insinuates, 
but for their benefit. He objects after this manner: that 
I say nothing more severe than truth obligeth me to say 
is manifest hence. When others invite men to the mys- 
teries, they invite men after this manner: Whoever has 
clean hands and a good understanding; or, Whosoever 
is pure from vice, whose soul is conscious of no evil, and 
lives according to the laws of righteousness, let him come 
hither. Now let us see whom they invite. Whoever, 
they say, is a sinner; whoever is ignorant; whoever is 
silly; and, in a word, whoever is miserable — these the 
kingdom of God receives. Whom do you mean by sin- 
ners ? Do you not thereby intend thieves, house-breakers, 
poisoners, sacrilegious, and the like? And what else could 
men say who aim to form a society of the worst of men? " 
To which Origen answers: '*It is one thing to invite 
sick souls to come to be healed, and another thing to call 
such as are cured to partake of higher mysteries. We 
who know the difference of these two things first invite 
men to come and be healed, and we exhort sinners to 
attend to those who teach men not to sin, and the ig- 
norant and unwise we exhort to hearken to those who 
will teach them wisdom; the weak we exhort to aim at 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. i35 

manly wisdom, and the miserable we invite to accept of 
happiness, or, to speak more properly, blessedness. And 
when they whom we have admonished have made some 
progress and have learned to Hve well, then they are 
initiated by us. For we speak wisdom among the per- 
fect." (I. Cor. 2:6; B. 3, s. 59, p. 147.) 

That the Christian doctrine gives no encouragement 
to wickedness is apparent from the books of the New 
Testament, in which it is clearly taught, and that the 
general practice of Christians is here misrepresented ap- 
pears from Justin Martyr, who lived about the same 
time with Celsus, who, in his first Apology, gave an 
account of the Christian principles and worship, saying: 
"When any are persuaded of the truth of things taught 
by us and engaged to the utmost of their power to live 
accordingly, they are directed to pray, joining therewith 
fasting, that they may obtain from God forgiveness of 
their past sins, we also praying and fasting with them; 
and they are brought by us to a place where there is 
water, and they are regenerated in the same manner as 
we are." Nor were they admitted to the eucharist till 
afterwards, as he afterwards shows; so writes Justin 
Martyr. The discipline of the church was much the 
same in the time of Origen; for, some while before, in 
answer to another reflection of Celsus not very different 
from this which we are now considering, he says: "But 
what ground is there to compare us with those haranguers 
and conunon strollers ? Is there any resemblance between 
them and us, who by readings and explications of those 
readings excite men to piety toward God of the universe 
and to other virtues of like excellence, and who call men 
off from a neglect of religion and from all things contrary 
to right reason? Certain of the philosophers would be 
well pleased to gather together such as are disposed to 



136 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

hear their discourses concerning what is good and honest ; 
nor ought such to be compared with the common strollers 
above mentioned; nor is it reasonable to suppose that 
Celsus would condemn those philosophers, who, from a 
principle of humanity, endeavor to instruct and improve 
the ignorant vulgar." 

Celsus seems to quote words of a dialogue (if they 
are not his own invention, as written by some Christian), 
where mention is made of angels of light and other angels, 
with their prince at their head, who is mentioned by a 
very opprobrious name. *'Then," says Origen, ''laying 
hold of these words, he deservedly censures those who 
say such things. We also are very' ready to join in cen- 
suring such as called the God of the Jews accursed — if, 
indeed, there are any such men. I mean the God that 
sends rain and thunder; the God of Moses and author 
of the creation described by him. Here," adds Origen, 
"Celsus seems to have intended somewhat very unfair 
against us, proceeding from ill-will, unbecoming a phil- 
osopher. He intended they who read his book, to whom 
we are unknown, should declare war against us and men 
who called the good Creator of the world accursed, in 
which he resembles the Jews, who at the first rise of the 
Christian doctrine spread abroad calumnies against it, 
giving out that they killed a child and ate it, and that 
when the lights were put out they practiced promiscuous 
lewdness; which calumny, however absurd, was of old 
credited by many who differ from us, and even now 
there are some who are deceived by it that for this reason 
they are so averse to all Christians that they will have 
no discourse or communication with any of them. Some- 
what of this kind Celsus seems to have aimed at when 
he gave out that the Christians call the Creator of the 
world the accursed God, that men believing such things 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 137 

of us might be disposed to do their utmost to extirpate 
the Christians as the most pious of all men." (B. 7, 
s. 27, pp. 293-294.) "By all which we may perceive that 
Celsus was filled with enmity against the Christians of 
his time and did not spare them. After this he insinu- 
ates that the worship paid to Antinous, one of the be- 
loved favorites of Adrian, at Antinopolis in Egypt, differs 
not from the respect which we have for Jesus. Another 
instance, this, of his hatred of us. But what have we 
in common with men whose manners are so vicious as 
to be exempt from such miserable practices in nature? 
What comparison can be made between them and the 
venerable Jesus whom we follow? against whom though 
innumerable lies and calumnies have been forged, none 
have dared to charge him with any kind of intemperance 
whatever." (B. 3, s. 36, p. 132.) 

No one can with any degree of candor deny but what 
Celsus has been fully conversant with and examined the 
four Gospels and many other books of the New Testa- 
ment, and that in this statement as made by Celsus, 
and the answers to Celsus by Origen, there is sufficient 
evidence shown to prove the fact that the Christian religion 
was started by the lyord Jesus Christ and practiced by 
His followers as set out in the new dispensation or gospel 
accorded to Jesus Christ ; and in examining the state- 
ment and argument made by this Epicurean and Pla- 
tonic philosopher you can easily see that he was preju- 
diced against the Christian religion and Jesus Christ, 
the one who established it. His whole effort and bend 
of argument was to ridicule and deride it in such a man- 
ner that it would become unpopular with all the inhab- 
itants of the country in and around wherein his work, 
as he styled "The True Word," would be circulated. 
You will further notice that in no instance did Celsus 



138 MORTALS AND IMMORTAUTY. 

deny the truth or statement of the things purported to 
be done in the way of miracles in heahng the sick, bring- 
ing the bUnd to sight, and raising the dead, and Jesus 
Christ being crucified and raised from the dead and as- 
cending unto Heaven after appearing many times to 
His Apostles; but claims that all this that could not 
be understood or explained was done by or through some 
magical deception practiced by the Savior upon them 
with whom He had associated. These paragraphs of 
Celsus preserved by Origen in his answering Celsus in 
his Apologies are set out herein for the express purpose 
of showing that the Christian religion and Jesus Christ 
were known and recognized by the world then known 
to be facts as fully as they are at this time. For what 
is admitted by such a man as Celsus is known to be, 
with his tenacious faith and faith in his own religion, 
will certainly prove without controversy, to anyone who 
desires to arrive at the real truth, that Jesus Christ is 
a reality, and is fully admitted so to be by one of His 
most learned and bitterest opposers. 

It is true that in his writings he has not mentioned 
any of the authors of any of the books of the New Tes- 
tament; but each and every one of his quotations, as- 
sertions, and statements in every place can be easily 
traced to some parts of the different books in the New 
Testament or letters written by some of the Apostles, as 
the statements are exactly what can be found therein. 
On page 79 he shows there particularly, and states that 
Jesus, Who he says was represented by the Word of 
God (p. 79), and Who was the author of the Christian 
name (p. 21), and also called Himself the Son of God, 
was a man of Nazareth (p. 345); that He was the re- 
puted son of a carpenter (p. 30); that His birth was of 
divine origin and operation (p. 30), and that to remov^ 



MORTALS AND IMMORTAUTY. 139 

the carpenter's prejudice an angel appeared unto him 
(p. 266); that when He was born a star appeared in 
the east to certain Magi, who came to adore Him (pp. 
31-45), with the consequence of the slaughter of infants 
by order of Herod, hoping thereby to destroy Jesus and 
prevent His reign (p. 45) ; but His parents were warned 
by an angel to fly into Egypt to preserve His life, as if 
His father could not protect Him at home (pp. 51-266), 
and that He continued in Egypt for a while, where, he 
says (without any proof). He had an opportunity of 
learning magic (p. 22). He also admits and states that 
when Jesus was baptized by John, a dove descended 
upon Him, and that a voice from Heaven, declaring Him 
to be the Son of God, was heard (pp. 31-105). Then He 
was vexed by temptation and assault of the evil spirit 
of this world was upon Him (p. 303). He calls Christ 
himself a carpenter (p. 300), and insults His mean life 
in lurking from place to place (p. 47) ; further stating 
about His gathering up ten or twelve men which were 
publicans and men of scandalous character that used the 
sea. He further represents Christ as a beggar (p. 47), 
stating that at times He became hungry and thirsty 
(p. 55). He also states that He was rejected by many 
who heard Him, and he hints toward the statement 
about an attempt made to throw Him down a precipice 
(p. 298). Further, he refers to the multiplying of some 
loaves, but speaks of others doing the like. Where he 
speaks about curing the lame and the blind is on page 
87. He derides the statement, *'Thy faith hath saved 
thee" (p. 8). He hints at several things concerning the 
doctrine of Christ and the manner of His preaching, 
which shows that it must be taken from St. Matthew's 
account of His sermon on the Mount, particularly that 
lie promised that His followers shall inherit the earth; 



I40 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

that if any should strike them on the one cheek, they 
should turn the other (pp. 343-370). He alludes to the 
statement declaring that no man can serve two masters 
(p. 380), and would have His disciples learn from the 
birds of the air and the lilies of the field not to care or 
be careful for food and raiment (p. 343). He further re- 
fers to His saying it is easier for a camel to go through 
the eye of a needle than for a rich man to be saved 
(pp. 286-288). H«e also calls attention to the fact that 
Jesus was not always adhered to, and that He denounced 
woes upon His hearers for their obstinate infidelity (p. 
107). He also called attention to the fact that His dis- 
ciples claimed that He foretold all things which He was 
to suffer (p. 67), and His resurrection (p. 93); and also 
that deceivers would come and work miracles, and speaks 
of the author of those wicked works by the name of 
Satan (p. 89). He objects that Jesus withdrew Himself 
from those who sought to put Him to death (p. 62); 
saying (p. 70), *'Why did He avoid death, knowing it 
was to come?" He further alludes to the fact of His 
eating the flesh of the lamb (p. 340) ; and that He fore- 
told to His disciples that they would give Him up to 
His enemies, thereby making them wicked, though they 
were the companions of His table (p. 72); that for His 
suffering He prayed in these words: *' Father, if it be 
possible, let this cup pass away"; that He was betrayed 
by His disciples, although robbers are faithful to their 
leaders (pp. 62-66) ; that none of His disciples dared to 
suffer for Him (p. 86) ; and that He professed to undergo 
His suffering in obedience to His Father (p. 75), and set 
these things out to happen (p. 332) ; that He was denied 
by one who knew Him to be God (p. 71), to whom, as 
well as to the greater. He had foretold what He would do 
(p. 72). It is intimated that He spoke of coming again 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 141 

with a heavenly host (p. 337). He speaks of Jesus as 
ignominiously bound (p. 282); as scourged (p. 79); as 
crowned with thorns, with a reed in His hand, and arrayed 
in a scarlet robe; and as condemned (p. 81); as having 
gall given Him to drink when He was led away to pun- 
ishment (p. 174); as shamefully treated in the sight of 
the whole world (p. 282); as extended on the cross (p. 
80). He derides Him for not exerting His divinity and 
punishing those outrages (p. 81); further taking notice. 
He took no vengeance on His enemies (p. 404) ; as ca- 
pable of delivering Himself and not being delivered by 
His Father in this extremity (p. 41) ; and as greedily 
drinking gall and vinegar through impatience of thirst 
(pp. 82 and 340). He observes it was pretended that 
when Jesus expired upon the cross there was darkness 
and an earthquake (p. 94); that when He arose He 
needed an angel to remove the stone of the sepulchre, 
though He was said to be the Son of God (p. 266) ; and 
according to some, one, and according to others, two 
angels came to the sepulchre to inform a woman of His 
resurrection (p. 266) ; but after His resurrection He did 
not appear to His enemies (p. 98), but first to a woman 
whom He had disposed (pp. 94-104); and He appeared 
to a few of His disciples, showing them the marks of 
crucifixion, and appeared and disappeared on a sudden 
(pp. 98-104). He says he takes these things from our 
writing, so that he can wound us with our own weapons 
(p. 106). He further speaks of the circumstances pro- 
duced in the gospel of Christ pretending to come again 
to burn and destroy the wicked and to receive the rest 
to eternal life with Himself (p. 175). He refers to the 
Christian doctrine again of the fall of the angels and 
their being reserved in bonds under the earth (p. 266). 



142 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

It seems that there has been nothing quoted by Cel- 
sus that can be shown to come from the Acts, neither 
does he name St. Paul, but quotes his Epistles, as shown 
in his Epistle to the Galatians (Chapter 4, verse 13). 
He also refers to the statement, ''The world is crucified 
unto me, and I unto the world" (p. 273), which Origen 
says is all that he had taken from Paul. Yet he has 
these words from I. Corinthians 3:19: ''The wisdom of 
this world is foolishness with God" (p. 293). But it is 
observable in the first of these quotations that Celsus 
reproaches the Christians with their many divisions, and 
yet says that, however they differ, they agreed in using 
that expression (p. 242). He seems also expressly to 
refer to I. Corinthians 15:51-52 and I. Thessalonians 4: 
15-17. When he says the Christians expected they only 
can escape the burning of the world, and that not only 
they who are alive when it happens, but those also 
who have been a long time dead, it seems that he has 
referred to quotations therein that Origen took notice 
of, and his argmnents from them very many times on 
their face appear to be unreasonable, perverse, and ma- 
licious in their manner. 

He seems to delight in trying to fasten upon Jesus 
Christ words or actions of His recorded in the Evangelist 
that will tend to bring Him into disrepute and overthrow 
the Christian reHgion, but in effect he has proven to us 
that not only did such a book exist as the New Testament 
writings, but it was universally received by the Christians 
as credible and divine. What a wonderful blessing it 
is to the world and to all the followers of Jesus Christ 
and His religion that Celsus wrote this book and Origen 
took out paragraphs from it and presei-ved them to the 
world, which will enable those followers to remove from 
them any clouded feeling of doubt as to the genuineness 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 143 

of the Christian religion! There is another thing that 
can be noticed in the arguments of this learned phil- 
osopher; that in no place has he attempted in any man- 
ner whatever to discredit the books of the New Testa- 
ment or any of the letters written by the Apostles, which 
is another testimony of the genuineness of these writings ; 
for without doubt, had there been any possible chance 
for this great man, who was equipped with great research 
and learning, and at an early time, when he no doubt 
knew all the facts, he certainly would have shown them 
to have been spurious and false if he could have done so. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Porphyry. 

Porphyry was born in Syro-Phoenicia, as we are as- 
sured by himself and by Lidanius and Eunapius, and it 
is well known that he descended from honorable ances- 
tors. It is computed with much accuracy that he was 
born in the year of Alexander Severus, A. D. 233. His 
original name was Meleck, which in the Syriac language 
means *'king." He studied under Longinus for quite a 
time, who changed his name into Porphyry, which sig- 
nifies in Greek ''purple," which was usually worn by the 
kings and princes. Porphyry was at Rome in the year 
A. D. 253, only for a short time. He came hither again 
in the tenth year of the emperor Gallienus, when he was 
thirty years of age, as related by himself. The tenth 
year of that emperor answers to the year of our Lord 
262. It is concluded that Porphyry was born in the 
year of Christ 233. At that time Plotinus had a school 
at Rome, and Porphyry, being much taken with him, 



144 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

spent there six years under his instructions; at the end 
of which term he says he had a strong tendency to put 
an end to his life. Plotinus, perceiving it, told him that 
did not proceed from reason, but from a melancholy 
disorder, and advised him to leave the city. Whereupon 
in the year 268 he went into Sicily, where he was in the 
second year of the emperor Claudius, in the year A. D. 
270, when Plotinus died in Campania. Porphyry is called 
Bataneotes by Jerome and Chrysostom. Baronius hence 
argued that Porph)rry was a Jew, and was so called from 
Batanea, a city in Palestine. This, however, has been 
rejected, yet Porphyry certainly was an Assyrian. 

Porphyry's works were very numerous. At this time 
we will only mention a few of them. He put out a 
philosophical history in four books, which was quoted 
different times by C3n-il of Alexandria in his work against 
Julian, and mentioned also by Socrates in his ecclesias- 
tical history. We know that it concluded with the life 
of Plato. The first book probably contained the life of 
Pythagoras. He wrote against the Christians fifteen 
books, but there is nothing of this work in existence 
except some fragments. He was answered by Methodius 
Eusebius of Csesarea and ApoUinarius of Laodicea. All 
confutations of this adversary of the Christians are en- 
tirely lost. The works that he wrote against the Chris- 
tians were no doubt written in Sicily, which is maintained 
by Eusebius and Jerome. But we do not know that the 
writings against the Christians were answered by Me- 
thodius, who is supposed to have suffered martyrdom in 
the year of Christ 311, which was near the end of the 
Diocletian persecution. 

The twelfth book of Porphyry, Jerome says, was 
written against Daniel, and insisted that Daniel did not 
write that prophecy in the Bible, but that it was written 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 145 

by another, who Hved in Judea in the time of Antiochus, 
and whose surname was Epiphanes; and insisted that 
Daniel did not foretell things to come, but related things 
that had already happened, for if anything was shown 
to take place that he had foretold, it would be certainly 
all falsehood, for the writer of that book could not see 
things in the future. (Vol. 3, p. 1071.) Porphyry la- 
bors hard to make Daniel's prophecy all a history. Por- 
phyry says that the five and forty days over and above 
the twelve hundred and ninety shows the time of the 
victory gained over the general Antiochus when Judas 
and the Maccabees fought gallantly and cleansed the 
temple, broke the idol in pieces, and offered sacrifices in 
the temple, which might be rightly said if the Book of 
Maccabees had related that the temple was polluted three 
years and a half, and not three years. (Vol. 3, p. 1134.) 
Porphyry here acknowledges the intelligibility and truth 
of the Book of Daniel, and he shows conclusively that 
he read the Book of Daniel as we now read it. 

Mill, in his prolegomena to the New Testament, has 
taken notice of several texts in the Gospels to which Por- 
phyry made exception. Matthew 1:11-12: "And Josias 
begat Jechonias and his brethren, about the time they 
were carried away to Babylon: and after they were 
brought to Babylon, Jechonias begat Salathiel.'* Here, 
as it seems, one and the same person, Jechonias, ends 
the second fourteen and begins the third class of four- 
teen; consequently one generation was supposed to be 
wanting. Porphyry therefore, as is learned from Jerome, 
charged St. Matthew with a mistake. But Jerome says 
that Porphyry herein only betrayed his own ignorance 
and unskillfulness. We can hence clearly argue that in 
Porphyry's time the genealogy of St. Matthew was gen- 
erally received by Christians; otherwise there had been 



146 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

no reason why he should make any remark upon it ; for, 
as Jerome observes, Porphyry mentioned this supposed 
error of the EvangeHst as a reflection upon the earth. 
Matthew 9:9: *'And as Jesus passed forth from thence, 
he saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of 
custom: and he saith unto him, Follow me. And he 
arose, and followed him." Jerome says Porphyry and 
the Emperor Julian pretend that either the historian has 
told a lie, or else people were very silly to follow Jesus 
at His call, acting as if they were ready to follow any man 
that beckoned to them; **not considering," says Jerome, 
*'that before this time many great miracles and signs 
liave been done by Jesus, of which the Apostles were 
witnesses before they believed." (B. 4, pp. 1-30.) Mat- 
thew 13:35: "That it might be fulfilled which was 
spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth 
in parables." That is a reference to Psalm 78, which 
is entitled a ''Psalm of Asaph," and in some copies of 
St. Matthew where we have ''by the prophet" was read 
"by the prophet Jenoa." This gave an account to the 
objections of Porphyry which we meet with in the Bre- 
viarum upon the Psalter, generally ascribed to Jerome, 
but not reckoned his by the Benedictine editors. "It 
is not Isaiah says this, but Asaph," says that writer. 
"Therefore the impious Porphyry alleges this against us, 
and says: 'Your evangelist Matthew was so ignorant 
as to say, "which was written by the prophet Isaiah, I 
will open my mouth in parables ; I will utter things kept 
secret from the foundation of the world."'" (Vol. 2, 
p. 2, p. 316.) Jerome thinks and says the original read- 
ing was thus, "that it might be fulfilled which was 
spoken by the prophet Asaph," by whom that psalm 
was composed. But some transcriber of St. Matthew, 
not recaUing that Asaph could have been a prophet, and 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 147 

imagining therefore that it was a mistake, inserted the 
name of Isaiah, who was better known. Matthew 3:3: 
''This is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, 
saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness. Pre- 
pare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.'* 
Here Jerome observes to this purpose. Porphyry com- 
pares this place with the beginning of St. Mark's Gospel: 
**As it is written in the prophets. Behold, I send my 
messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way 
before thee. The voice of one crying in the wilderness. 
Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight." 
For since this quotation is composed out of Malachi 3:1 
and Isaiah 40:3, he asks how it comes to pass that it 
is all said to be taken from Isaiah. "To which question," 
says Jerome, ''ecclesiastical writers have answered largely ; 
but I am of the opinion that the name of Isaiah has been 
added through the fault of the transcriber of the Gospel." 
(Vol. 4, p. 10.) Jerome has considered this point else- 
where. We hence perceive that at that time the name of 
Isaiah was read in St. Mark as well as in St. Matthew, 
whereas now in St. Mark it is "in the prophets." Con- 
cerning this various reading divers learned moderns may 
be consulted. 

Relative to the beginning of St. John's Gospel Por- 
phyry used these expressions, which clearly show the 
sophism of that Gentile writer falls to the ground. He, 
endeavoring to overthrow the Gospel, makes use of these 
diversions : "If," says he, " the Son of God be the Word, 
He must be either outward word or inward word — that 
is, reason, thought, or speech. But He is neither this, 
nor that. Therefore he is not the Word." (Theo., p. 588.) 

In Galatians 2:11-14 St. Paul says: "But when Pe- 
ter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, 
because he was to be blamed. For before that certain 



148 MORTALS AND IMMORTAUTY. 

[information] came from James, he did eat with the Gen- 
tiles: .... But when I saw that they 
walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, 
I said unto Peter before them all." Porphyry, not under- 
standing this, in his first book of his books against us, 
Jerome says, he objects that Peter was reproved by 
Paul, that he did not proceed uprightly in preaching 
the gospel, aiming thereby to fix a blot of a mistake upon 
the one and a peevishness upon the other; hence he ar- 
gues that it shows falsehood of the doctrine, as if they 
were mere inventions, or else the heads of the church 
could have agreed. This was wherein the difference arose 
between Peter, who was preaching to the Jews, con- 
verting them to the Christian religion, and Paul, who 
was sent unto the Gentiles to carry the Christian re- 
ligion to them, and arose out of the fact of the different 
mode of living of the Jews and Gentiles and their cus- 
toms practiced, and the question whether either or both 
should follow after the doctrine of circumcision, and it 
was decided in accordance with the teachings of Jesus 
Christ that now the circumcision was of the heart. 

Here are some extracts out of the book of Letters 
of Augustine in answer to a few questions or difficulties 
as taken from Porphyry, proposed by a pagan at Car- 
thage, and sent to him by a presbyter named Deogratias. 
"If Christ," he says, "be the way of salvation, of truth, 
and the life (John 14:6), and they only who live in him 
can be saved, what becomes of the men who lived before 
his coming?" which difficulty is there enlarged upon. 
(Aug. Ep., n. 8, vol. 2.) Augustine says that there were 
revelations made to men from the beginning of the world 
such as were suited to their circumstances of things, and 
that all good men in every part of the world were ac- 
cepted and saved. "In the sacred Hebrew volumes, 



MORTALS AND IMMORTAUTY. 149 

down from the time of Abraham, some are mentioned 
who have the knowledge of the true reHgion, who neither 
were descended from him nor were of the people of Israel 
nor engrafted in among them. The like may be sup- 
posed of some in other nations, who also would obtain 
salvation." (Ibid., n. 15.) The Christians find fault 
with the sacred rites and sacrifices and incense and other 
things of which the worship of the temples consists, and 
yet they allow that this kind of worship began in ancient 
times by the appointment of God, Who is also repre- 
sented as wanting first fruits. (Ibid., n. 16.) Augustine 
shows that sacrifices were appointed of old, which were 
to be offered to God alone, and that they were designed 
for the good of men, not of God, Who needed not any- 
thing, as is plainly declared. Psalm 16:2: *'I have said 
unto the Lord, Thou art my God. Thou needest not 
my goods,'* or, in our version, '*my goodness extendeth 
not to thee." Christ threatens everlasting punishment 
to those who do not believe in Him, and yet in another 
place He says, 'With what measure ye mete, it shall be 
meted to you again,* which is absurd and contrary, for 
all measure must be limited to time." (Ibid., n. 22.) 

Jerome, in his observations, is extolling the excess of 
Peter and Paul in preaching the gospel. "God sent 
Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and other prophets, and in 
Judea was God known. His name was great in Israel 
(a small tract of land only). He sent Peter, no phil- 
osopher or orator, but an illiterate fisherman, who went 
from Jerusalem to Rome and converted Rome, which 
the most eloquent men are not able to do. Again, he sent 
out the Apostle Paul, and he preached the gospel in 
Jerusalem round about to lUyricum. (Rom. 15:19.) Al- 
exander the Great, king of Macedonia, with a powerful 
army, did not conquer so many nations as they did. 



I50 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

This Paul, who once was a persecutor, who says himself 
that he was rude in speech, though not in knowledge, 
who made solecisms in his speech, subdued the whole 
world. All this was done for the sake of gain; so says 
Porphyry. Ignorant and indigent men, because they 
had nothing, performed some signs of magical art, which 
is no great matter, for the magicians of Egypt and many 
others have wrought signs. I^et it be granted and as 
you say, the Apostles wrought signs, that they might 
enrich themselves with the treasures of rich women whom 
they perverted. But then, why did they die? Why 
were they crucified? Others have wrought signs by mag- 
ical arts, but they did not die for a dead man; they 
were not crucified for a man that had been crucified. 
They knew him to be dead, and did they die without 
any reason? Our victory is completed in the blood of 
the Apostles; our faith is ratified in their blood. Let 
us therefore praise God, in whom we glory for ever and 
ever." (Brev. Psal., vol. 2, pp. 334-335-) 

Porphyry in his criticism of the different books in 
the Bible, also in the different books of the Gospel, 
shows that the Gospels were used and read as we now 
use them and read them at a very early date, as shown 
by Celsus in his criticism; but the objections raised by 
Porphyry to the Christian religion are very weak and 
establish nothing except the fact that they emanate from 
a man who had no knowledge, apparently, of the spir- 
itual life that comes to man through communing with 
God through His revelations. 



CHAPTER X. 

JUIyTAN. 

Having heard the testimony of unbelieving Jews and 
Greeks and the testimony of two of the most distin- 



MORTALS AND IMMORTAUTY. 15^ 

guished writers against the Christian religion, we will 
here add the testimony and sayings of one of the great- 
est apostates, who not only renounced the religion, but 
wrote a volume against it. We will not mention the 
testimony of Aurelius Aristides, Dion Chrysostom, Clau- 
dius Gallienus, of the second century, and many other 
eminent writers who are alluded to in the Christian or 
or sacred books, such as Lampridius, Dion Cassius, lyon- 
ginus, Numenius, and Aurelian, who flourished about 
the beginning of the third century and during the first 
half of it, because after the middle of the second century 
there can be little added which can not be found in the 
works already quoted; and as to opposing authorities, 
none greater can be adduced than those which we have 
already heard. We are next to hear an emperor and an 
apostate, and one of the most eminent writers and phil- 
osophers of his day; whose whole talents, learning, in- 
fluence, and authority are put in requisition against the 
cause. We shall, however, find in him the same sort of 
confirmation of the truth of Christianity and of the an- 
tiquity and authority of the sacred writings which we 
have found in his predecessors; served up, indeed, with 
a little more of the spice of hatred and illiberality to 
the Christian name and people. 

Julian was about six years of age when Constantine 
died in 337, soon after which, in the year 339, when 
Julian was in his eighth year of age, several of Constant 
tine's family were put to death, and among them the 
father of Julian. The infirmities and weak constitution 
of Callus, a brother of Julian, saved Julian's life; it be- 
ing thence concluded that he could not live long, and 
Julian's tender age was a security to him. Constantine 
took care that they should be educated by Christian 
masters. When Julian was about fourteen or fifteen 



152 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

years of age, he and his brother Gallus were sent to 
Cappadocia, where they Hved. JuHan says they were 
shut up as in a prison. Here they spent about six years, 
till the year 351, when Gallus was made Caesar. At that 
time Julian was permitted to come to Constantinople; 
afterwards he was sent away to Nicomedia, where Li- 
banius then taught rhetoric. At that place Julian had 
a good deal of liberty and became acquainted with di- 
vers heathen philosophers, some of whom came hither 
on purpose to pay their respects to him. Julian at the 
age of twenty took a liking to one Hellenias, and it is 
related that some of these philosophers then gave him 
hope of becoming emperor. Constantine had informa- 
tion concerning him, and Julian, to prevent disagreeable 
suspicions, as Socrates says, was shaved and made a 
profession of being a monk. He privately, however, 
studied philosophy and publicly read the Scriptures, and 
he was ordained reader in the church of Macedonia. 

In 354 Gallus was killed, and Julian was suspected 
of disaffection. He was sent for, therefore, to come to 
Milan, where the Emperor then was, and a guard was 
set upon him. In this danger Julian's life was saved by 
the intercession of the emperor Eusabia, who obtained 
leave for him to travel in Greece, which was very agree- 
able to Julian, who wanted nothing more than to com- 
plete his studies at Athens, and the Emperor was like- 
wise willing he should employ his time in matters of 
literature rather than poHtics. In the year 355 Julian 
arrived at Athens, where also Basil and Gregory Nazi- 
anzen were studying eloquence and other parts of polite 
literature; but Julian made no long stay there, for in 
the same year he was sent for by Constantine to Milan, 
and on the 6th day of November, 355, he was declared 
Caesar, that he might go into Gaul and take command 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 153 

of the army there, and Britain and Spain were also put 
under his government. A few days after that Constan- 
tine gave him in marriage his sister Helena. In the 
year 360, about the month of March or April, in the 
twenty-ninth year of his age, he was, against his will, 
declared Augustus by the soldiers of Paris, who in a 
manner compelled him to accept the title and to take 
upon him the government no longer in the quahty of 
Caesar, but of emperor. Julian therefore sent some of 
his officers with a letter to Constantine, who was then 
in the East preparing for war with the Persians, giving 
him an account of what had been done, desiring him to 
yield to him the title of Augustus, and promising him 
all the submission that could be expected from a second 
and a partner in the empire. Julian's officers found 
Constantine at Caesar in Cappadocia, who resented the 
conduct of Julian and sent him a letter requiring him 
to be content with the title of Caesar. That letter was 
received by Julian at Paris, and was read in the presence 
of the people and soldiers. Julian offered to submit to 
the proposal of Constantine if the soldiers approved of 
it, but with loud acclamations they conj&rmed to him 
the title of Augustus. Julian died in the thirty-second 
year of his age, having been Caesar about seven years 
and a half, Augustus after his proclamation by the 
soldiers in Gaul about three years, and sole emperor 
after the death of Constantine a year and almost eight 
months. 

Julian, from the teachings received from those phil- 
osophers who formed his acquaintance when young, de- 
nounced Christianity and embraced Hellenism at his 
twentieth year of age; but this was kept very secret, 
and was known only to a few who were his intimate 
friends until after he was proclaimed Augustus by the 



154 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

soldiers in Gaul, and after that he was on the reverse, 
for when he was in Venice on his way to Constantinople 
he still pretended to follow the Christian rites from which 
he had departed a good while before, and privately with 
his friends practiced augury and divination and all other 
things customary with the Greeks, and in the month of 
January, 361, on the festival called Epiphany, he went 
to the church of the Christians. (Ain., b. 21, c. 2.) 
But when he became declared sole emperor and he was 
at liberty to act as he saw fit, he made express edicts 
opening the temples, erecting altars, and performing sac- 
rifices. (Am., b. 22, c. 5.) Julian was a persecutor 
bearing hard upon the Christians, though without put- 
ting them to death. He did not resort to the cruelty 
of Diocletian's persecution, and other Christian writers 
say he envied Christians the honor of martyrdom. Je- 
rome records that the character of Julian's persecution 
was mild; that he enticed them rather than compelled 
them to sacrifice; but in the course that he pursued he 
drew many aside from the Christian religion. Gregory 
Nazianzen, near the end of his second invective against 
Julian, remarking upon his Misopogon or Satire against 
the people of Antioch, expresses himself after this man- 
ner: "You boast mightily of never eating to excess as 
a wonderful thing, but say not how you have oppressed 
the Christians, an innocent and numerous body of men, 
notwithstanding that whether some particular person is 
troubled with crudities or not is a thing of little conse- 
quence to the public, whereas by the persecution which 
you have raised the whole Roman Empire has been dis- 
turbed." (Gregor., Or. 4, pp. i33-i34-) 

It can not be necessary to take notice of Julian's 
works generally, but there is one which can not be omit- 
ted; for at length, in his great "^eal, in the midst of his 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. i55 

preparations for the Persian War, when he was almost 
ready to set out on that expedition, he took the pains 
to compose an argument against the Christian reHgion. 
Jerome says it consisted of seven books, and in another 
place he has quoted the seventh book of that work; but 
Cyril of Alexandria, in the preface to his confutation of 
it, mentions only three books written by Julian against 
the holy gospel and the venerable religion of the Chris- 
tians. Cyril dedicates this defence of our religion in ten 
books to Theodosius the Younger; he did not write, as 
is supposed, before the year 432. Whether some part 
of Julian's work was lost between the time of Jerome 
and Cyril, or whether it was differently divided, is not 
known; but that Cyril mentions three books only be- 
cause he intended to answer a part only of the work is 
not believed, and when he says that Julian had written 
three books against the Christian religion, no doubt it 
was the whole work which he had put before him. Je- 
rome seems to say that Julian's work was composed 
during the Persian expedition, but I do not think he 
intended to say it was written after Julian set out from 
Antioch in his march toward Persia. No doubt we may 
rely upon Libanius for the time of this work, who was 
cited by Socrates; he says: ''In the winter season, dur- 
ing the long nights, the Emperor set himself to confute 
those books which make the man of Palestine a god and 
the Son of God, and in a long argument showed how 
trifling and absurd are those things which are admitted 
by them ; in which work he excelled the Tyrian old man. 
Let the Tyrian forgive me that I say he was exceeded 
by his son, but," says Socrates, "I am of the opinion that 
if Porphyry had been an emperor, he would have pre- 
ferred his work above Julian's." (Socrat., b. 3, p. 96.) 



156 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

We are informed by some or all of our ecclesiastical 
historians who write of Julian that he sent for some of 
the Jewish nation and inquired of them why they did 
not now sacrifice as the law of Moses directed. They 
told him that they were not to sacrifice at any place 
except Jerusalem, and, the temple being destroyed, they 
were obliged to forbear that part of worship. He there- 
upon promised to rebuild the temple at Jerusalem, and 
we have a letter of JuHan's inscribed to the community 
of the Jews, in which he boasts of his having abolished 
some taxes which had been laid upon them and called 
their venerable patriarch lulus his brother. He also 
entreats their prayers for them, that when he shall be 
returned victorious from the Persian War he might re- 
build the holy city of Jerusalem, which for a long time 
they had earnestly desired to see inhabited, and that he 
might come and dwell there himself, and together with 
him offer up prayers to the Supreme Deity. This letter, 
however extraordinary, must be reckoned genuine, for 
Sozoman expressly says that JuHan wrote to the patri- 
arch and rulers of the Jews and to their whole nation, 
desiring them to pray for him and the prosperity of his 
reign. This is an exact description of the letter we have, 
which is inscribed to the community of the Jews. It 
was written in the year 362, as Blettrie supposes. In 
the beginning of that year, says Tillemont and the Bishop 
of Gloucester, *' there is much on record concerning his 
abortive attempt to rebuild Jerusalem to please the Jews 
and frustrate the predictions of the Christians; but the 
labor of separating the truth from the fable, if there be 
any truth in the matter, would be much more expensive 
than the value of all that could be gained from it. 

Cyril's answer to it consists of ten books, the first of 
which is an introduction of his own. In the second book 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. I57 

he begins to make questions from Julian's work and from 
the many passages quoted from it by Cyril in his several 
books. It may be concluded that Julian's performance 
was intended to be a labored confutation both of Juda- 
ism and Christianity. In Julian's preface or introduc- 
tion he says: "I think it right for me to show all 
men the reason by which I have been convinced that the 
religion of the Galileans is a human contrivance badly 
put together, having in it nothing divine, but abusing 
the childish, irrational part of the soul, which delights 
in fable. They have produced a heap of wonderful 
works to give it the appearance of truth." (Cyril's Con- 
futation, b. 2, p. 39.) "It will be worth while," he says, 
"to compare together the things said of the Deity by 
the Greeks and the Hebrews, and then we shall inquire 
of those who are neither Greeks nor Jews, but of the 
sect of Galileans, why they have preferred their notions 
to ours, and then why they have not stood to them 
neither, but forsaking them also, they have taken to a 
way peculiar to themselves, holding nothing good and 
valuable taught by us Greeks or by the Hebrews, the 
disciples of Moses, but collecting what is bad in both, 
they have taken atheism from the Jewish absurdity and 
a wicked, dissolute life from our carelessness and in- 
difference. And this is what they call a most excellent 
religion." (Cyril contr. Julian, b. 2, pp. 42-43.) "That 
Moses says God was the God of Israel only and of Judea, 
and that they were His chosen people, I shall demon- 
strate presently, and that not only he, but the prophets 
after him, and Jesus the Nazarene says the same; yea, 
and Paul also, who exceeds all the jugglers and impos- 
tors that ever were. For this he presently after alleges." 
(Exodus, 4:22-23, V. 3, 7-1. Ibid., b. 3, p. 100.) Soon 
afterwards JuHan proceeds in this manner: "But that 



158 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

God from the beginning took care of the Jews only, and 
that they were His chosen lot, appears not only from 
Moses and Jesus, but from Paul also, though this may 
be justly thought strange in Paul; but upon every oc- 
casion, like a polypus upon the rocks, he changeth his 
notion of God; at one time affirming that the Jews only 
are God's heritage; at another time to persuade the 
Greeks and gain them over to his side, saying: *Is He 
the God of the Jews only? Yes, of the Gentiles also.' 
It is reasonable therefore to ask Paul if He was not the 
God of the Jews, but also of the Gentiles, why did He 
for the most part at least send to the Jews the prophetic 
spirit, and Moses and the anointing, and the prophets 
and the law, and miracles and prodigies of fables? And 
you hear them saying, 'Men did eat angels' food.' At 
length He sent Jesus also to them; not a prophet, not 
the anointing, not a master, not a preacher of the late 
mercy of God, to us. However, he overlooked us for 
myriads, or, if you please, for thousands of years, and 
left us in such ignoiance as to worshiping idols, as you 
say, from the east to the west and from the north to the 
south, excepting only a small nation about two thousand 
years ago planted in a part of Palestine. But if He be 
the God of all and the creator of all, why did He neglect 
us?" (Cyril contr. Julian, b. 3, p. 106.) 

Julian objects against the Mosaic account of the cre- 
ation of the world, the fall of man, and the confusion 
of languages. He finds fault also with the decalogue of 
Moses, which, as he says, contains no precepts that are 
not equally regarded by all nations except these two, 
"Thou shalt worship no other gods" and *' Remember 
the sabbath day." He prefers Lycurgus and Solon to 
Moses. He reflects upon David and Sampson as to 
their valor, claiming it was exceeded by many Greeks 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. I59 

and Egyptians, and all their powers were confined within 
the narrow limits of Judea, claiming that the Jews never 
had a leader that compared with Alexander or Caesar. 
He says that Solomon is not to be compared with some 
eminent men among the Greeks, such as Phocylides, 
Theognis, Isocrates. He adds that Solomon is said to 
have been overcome by women and does not deserve 
to be called a wise man. Julian cavils at several proph- 
ecies of the Old Testament which were applied to Jesus 
by His followers, and says: ''Since they therefore differ 
from the Jews of the present time and say they are the 
true Israelites, that they highly respect Moses and the 
other prophets after him, let us see wherein they agree 
with them, and we will begin with Moses, who, as they, 
say, foretold the future nativity of Jesus. Moses then, 
not once nor twice, but often, taught the worship of one 
God only. Others he calls angels or lords, but he never 
teaches any other second God, neither like or unlike, as 
you do. If you have one word in Moses favoring such 
expressions, you should produce it. What he says is: 
* For the I/ord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet 
from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; 
unto him ye shall hearken.' (Deut. 18:15.) This can 
not be spoken concerning the Son of Mary, but if we 
grant you that he would be like unto Moses, not unto 
God, meaning a prophet like himself and from men, and 
not from God. Genesis 49:10, 'The sceptre shall not 
depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his 
feet,' is not said of him, but of David's kingdom, which 
appears to have ended in King Zedekiah. But that 
none of these things belong to Jesus is manifest, for 
neither is he of Judah, and how should he be so when 
according to you he was not born of Joseph, but of the 
Holy Ghost. When you reckon up the genealogy of 



i6o MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

Joseph, you carry it up to Judah, but you have not 
been able to contrive this dexterously, for Matthew and 
Luke have been shown to differ with one another about 
the genealogy." (Matt, i; Ltikes; B. 8, p. 253.) "Je- 
sus," says Julian, as quoted by C3n41, "whom you cele- 
brate, was one of Caesar's subjects. If you dispute it, 
I will prove it by and by, but it may be as well done, 
for yourselves allow he was enrolled with his father and 
mother in the time of C3n:enius; after he was born, what 
good did he do to his relations, for they would not, as it 
is said, believe on him, and yet that stiff-necked and 
hard-hearted people believe Moses. But Jesus, who re- 
buked the winds and walked on the seas and cast out 
demons and, as you will have it, made the heavens and 
the earth (though none of his disciples presume to say 
this of him, except John only, nor he clearly and dis- 
tinctly; however, let it be allowed that he did say so), 
could not order his designs so as to save his friends and 
relations." (I^uke 2; John 7:5; Matt. 14:25; Mark 6: 
48; John I ; B. 6, p. 313.) "But Jesus having purchased 
among you, and those the worst of men, has now been 
celebrated about three hundred years, having done noth- 
ing in his Hfetime worthy of remembrance, unless any- 
one thinks it a mighty matter to heal the lame and 
blind people or exorcise demoniacs in the villages of 
Bethsaida and Bethany." (B. 6, p. 191.) "But you 
are so unhappy as not to adhere to the things delivered 
to you by the Apostles, but they have been altered by 
you for the worst and carried on to yet greater impiety, 
for neither Paul nor Matthew nor Luke nor Mark have 
dared to call Jesus God, but honest John, understanding 
that a great multitude of men in the cities of Greece 
and Italy were seized with this distemper; and hearing 
likewise, as I suppose, that the tombs of Peter and Paul 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. i6i 

were respected and frequented, though as yet privately 
only. However, having heard of it, he then first pre- 
sumed to advance that doctrine." (B. lo, p. 327.) "But 
you miserable people," says JuHan, '* at the same time that 
you refuse to worship the shield that fell down from 
Jupiter and is preserved by us, which was sent down to 
us by the great Jupiter, or our father Mars, as a certain 
pledge of the perpetual government of our city; you 
vsTorship the wood of the cross and make signs of it upon 
your foreheads and fix it upon your doors. Shall we for 
this most hate the understanding, or most pity the sim- 
ple and ignorant among you, who are so very unhappy 
as to leave the immortal gods and go over to a dead 
Jew?" (B. 6, p. 194.) 

Julian blames the Christians for having destroyed 
temples and altars. ''You have killed not only our peo- 
ple who persisted in the ancient religion, but likewise 
heretics, equally deceived with yourselves, but who did 
not mourn the dead man exactly in the same manner 
as you do. But these are your own inventions, for Jesus 
has nowhere directed you to do such things, nor yet PauL 
The reason is that they never expected you would arrive 
at such power. They were content with deceiving maid- 
servants and slaves and by them some men and women, 
such as Cornelius and Sergius. If there were then any 
other men of eminence brought over to you, I mean in 
the times of Tiberius and Claudius, when these things 
happened, let me pass for a liar in everything I say." 
(B. 6, p. 206.) This passage does wonderfully confirm 
the genuineness of the books of the Acts of the Apostles 
and the truth of the history contained in it. JuHan 
challenges the Christians, after he had excepted the two 
above mentioned, to produce the names of any more 
eminent men converted from the Gentiles to Christian- 



i62 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

ity in the reigns of Tiberius and Claudius, which is proof 
that JuHan did not and could not contest the truth of 
the history in the Acts of the Apostles, and likewise that 
he was well satisfied the Christians had no other au- 
thentic accounts of them. Once more: "Since the ac- 
counts given in the New Testament, and particularly in 
the Acts of the Apostles, of the conversion of slaves and 
maid-servants and of Cornelius and Sergius Paulus are 
allowed to be true, it is reasonable to beHeve also that 
the grounds and reasons for their conversion to the Chris- 
tian faith are truly and faithfully related, and conse- 
quently that they were not deceived or imposed upon, 
but were convinced upon sufficient and undeniable evi- 
dence, such as ought to sway and satisfy wise and good 
men seeking after the truth. But why do you not ob- 
serve pure diet as well as the Jews? but eat all things 
like herbs of the fields, beheving Peter because he said, 
'What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.' 
(Acts 10:15.) What does that mean unless that God 
formerly declared them to be impure, but now has made 
them clean? For Moses, speaking of four-footed beasts, 
says whatsoever divideth the hoof and cheweth the cud 
is clean, but whatsoever does not do so, that is unclean. 
(Lev. 11:4; Deut. 14:6.) If then since the vision of 
Peter the swine has chewed the cud, let us believe him, 
for that would be truly wonderful. If since Peter's 
vision it has got that faculty; but if he feigned that 
vision, to use your phrase, the revelation at the tanner's, 
why should you believe him in a thing of that nature?" 
(B. 9, p. 314.) ''But omitting many other things," says 
Julian, "by which I might show the law of Moses to be 
perpetual, do you show me one place where that is said 
which is affirmed by Paul with so much assurance, that 
Jesus Christ is the end of the law." (B. 9, p. 320.) "We 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 163 

can not say, they keep the feast of unleavened bread, or 
the Passover, because Jesus Christ has been once cruci- 
fied for us." (I. Cor. 5:7-10; p. 354.) ''Since you have 
forsaken us, why do you not adhere to the Jews, and 
why do you not sacrifice? The Jews indeed are hin- 
dered because they have no temple or altar, but you who 
have a new sacrifice have no need of Jerusalem." (B. 9, 
P- 305-) "These are the things that Paul writes to his 
disciples and to themselves: 'Be not deceived: neither 
fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor ejffeminate, 
nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor 
covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, 
shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some 
of you : but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye 
are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the 
Spirit of our God." (I. Cor. 6:9-11.) So you see they 
were such, but they had been sanctified and washed, hav- 
ing been cleansed and scoured with water, which penetrates 
even to the soul, and baptism, which can not heal the 
leprosy nor the gout nor any other distemper of the 
body, takes away adultery and extortions and all other 
sins of the soul." (B. 7, p. 345.) 

JuHan argues against the Jew as well as the Christian. 
He writes in relation to Jesus Christ and His followers, 
and his testimony is a valuable one to the history of the 
Christian rehgion and the New Testament. He admits 
and states that Jesus Christ was born in the reign of 
Augustus, at the time of the taxing made in Judea by 
Cyrenius, and that the Christian religion had its rise and 
began to be propagated in the times of Tiberius and 
Claudius. He bears a valuable testimony to the four 
Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John; also to the 
Acts of the Apostles; and he seems to quote them and 
refer to them with a knowledge, knowing that they are 



i64 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

the only historical books received by the Christians as 
of authority and the authentic memoirs of Jesus Christ 
and His Apostles and the doctrine proclaimed by them. 
He sets forth clearly their early date, and even argues 
for it. He also plainly refers to the Acts of the Apostles 
and to St. Paul's Epistles to the Romans, the Corinth- 
ians, and the Galatians. He does not pretend to deny 
any of the miracles of Jesus Christ, admitting that He 
healed the blind and lame and demoniacs and that He 
rebuked the winds and walked upon the waves of the 
sea. However, he attempts, in a very weak manner and 
without any argument when considered from a theological 
standpoint, to discredit or diminish that high character 
of all those claims, and in failing to do so leaves it un- 
deniable that such works are good proof of His divine 
mission. He also' attempts to show, vainly, that there 
were few followers of the doctrines of Jesus, yet after- 
wards acknowledges that there were multitudes of such 
men in Greece and Italy before St. John, who wrote his 
Gospel. He also admits the truth of the conversion 
of Cornelius, who was a Roman centurion at Caesarea, 
and Sergius Paulus, proconsul of Cyprus, who were con- 
verted to the faith of Jesus before the end of the reign of 
Claudius; and he often mentions and speaks of St. Peter 
and St. Paul with derision, yet recognizing them as 
Apostles of Jesus Christ and successfully preaching His 
gospel. Thus he has undesignedly been a great witness 
to the truth of many things recorded in the books of 
the New Testament. His effort to overthrow the Chris- 
tian religion only resulted in the greater confirmation 
of it. His arguments offered against it are perfectly 
harmless and insufficient to unsettle the mind of the 
weakest Christian or in any way to lead astray the honest 
searcher after things that would bring to him eternal 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 165 

life. He has never shown or made any objection of mo- 
ment against the Christian religion which was contained 
in the books of the New Testament. 

Julian went on a feast-day to pay his homage in the 
temple of Apollo at Daphne, in the neighborhood of 
Antioch, but there were neither people nor sacrifices. 
The priest had only a small victim of his own preparing; 
of this Julian complains grievously, that so large a city 
had not provided some bulls for sacrifice on that solem- 
nity. ''You ought," said he, '*to have sacrificed both 
privately and pubHcly, but you let your wives carry 
away everything to the Galileans, and they maintain 
their poor with your goods, and so bring their impiety 
into esteem." (Lb., p. 363.) The Christians there must 
have been exemplary indeed to have won with such a 
spirit of revenge against them; to give such a testimony 
to their liberality shows the best truth of a good and 
useful religion, further showing that Christianity was in 
the ascendency in and around near Antioch, and further 
showing that the religion of Jesus Christ at that early 
date had overrun all the provinces of the Roman Empire 
and many other countries throughout Asia, confirming 
the testimony of the Scriptures, showing that the Apos- 
tles carried out the admonitions and instructions given 
to them by their Master and Savior, Jesus Christ, ''Go 
ye into all the world and preach my doctrine to every 
creature." It also confirms the doctrine of the future 
life shown by the new dispensation preached by the 
Apostles, and the miraculous power ascribed to the prim- 
itive churches, estabhshed by the followers of Jesus, and 
the purity of the morals of the followers of the Christian 
faith, which no doubt had been confirmed and expected 
as a true spiritual doctrine by which to follow after God's 
will among all the Roman provinces, as well as all over 



1 66 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

the entire Roman Empire by the leading and most thor- 
oughly educated men of that time and age. This should 
of itself be the most convincing proof of the divine 
power that is in the Christian religion to the skeptic, 
and cause him to at once espouse the faith of a believing 
Christian and be a strict follower after the Lord Jesus 
Christ and the doctrine that He taught and left with 
the Church, which He established throughout the earth 
in order to draw all mankind to Himself. Julian did 
not seem to realize the spiritual power that is in Jesus 
Christ's teachings, in that a man must be born of the 
Spirit before he is brought into a condition where his 
eyes are not blinded by the allurements of the god of 
this world. 



CHAPTER XL 

Tacitus or SuKTONrus. 

This man was one of the Romans' greatest historians, 
and was born about A. D. 55. Some historians have 
put his birth much later, but there is no question but 
that they are incorrect; for Pliny the Younger has, in 
his work called "Pliny's Letters," which is now extant, 
written him quite a number of letters himself, which 
related and recorded the death of his uncle, which took 
place at the destruction of Pompeii. Pliny the Younger, 
who at that time was yet a student, says himself that 
he was engaged in his studies at the time that his uncle 
set out to make some investigation for science, but after- 
wards learning that a friend of his, by the name of 
Rectina, was in trouble, he ordered the galleys to proceed 
at once and bring about the rescue of those that were 
in trouble; and Tacitus v/rote to Pliny the Younger, 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 167 

making a request of him to send to him the details and 
a minute description of the circumstances under which 
his uncle lost his life, and this letter was written during 
the year A. D. 79, for the eruption of Vesuvius took 
place August 24, A. D. 79, which would make Tacitus at 
that time only twenty-four years old. As to the death 
of Tacitus, it is variously estimated by different historians, 
but the best authorities show, we think, that it was 
about A. D. 120. 

This man acquired great fame as a historian, as an 
orator, and as a lawyer. He married the daughter of 
JuHus Agricola, and he held many offices of trust under 
the Roman Empire. It seems that the history he was 
writing at the time he wanted Pliny the Younger to send 
him the account of his uncle's death was not completed 
until about A. D. 88, as about that time it was placed 
before the public; and no doubt much of his informa- 
tion was gained from some of the writings of Pliny the 
Elder, as he also was a great writer and historian. Many 
different histories that he wrote extended from A. D. 14 
to A. D. 105. It has been said by many subsequent 
writers that his writings gained him much more honor 
than all the offices and stations in hfe that came to him 
by order of the Roman Empire. Most of his writings 
are obsolete and those that exist are the annals beginning 
with Tiberius and ending at the death of Nero. Both 
of these works are now very imperfect and only frag- 
ments remain. Tacitus and Pliny the Younger became 
such intimate friends that they frequently would submit 
each other's writings to one another, for them to be in- 
spected before pubHcation. Most of the works of Tacitus 
were published between A. D. 80 and A. D. 98. 

The testimony of Tacitus concerning Jesus Christ 
and the Christian reUgion and its followers, in charging 



I68 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

that Nero was the incendiary of Rome, is that all human 
help, nor the Hberality of the Emperor himself, nor the 
allurements presented to the gods availed to abate the 
infamy he lay under of having himself ordered the city 
to be set on fire. But in order to suppress this universal 
belief and clamor, Nero procured them to be charged 
with the crime and inflicted exquisite and condign pun- 
ishment upon those people who were in abhorrence for 
their crime, and who were commonly known by the 
name of Christians; who in the reign of Tiberius were 
put to death as criminals by the procurator Pontius 
Pilate. They were charged with the crime of practicing 
and adhering to a religious worship which they styled 
a pernicious superstition, which had been established by 
a man called Jesus Christ; this persecution, practiced by 
Pilate checked the following of the superstition for a 
while, but shortly again it broke out and spread not 
only over all Judea, but in other places. The source of 
this evil reached the cities also, whither flow from all 
quarters all things vile and shameful, and where they 
find shelter and encouragement. At first they were only 
apprehended who confessed themselves of that sect. Af- 
terwards a vast multitude were discovered, all of which 
were condemned, not so much, however, for the crime 
of burning the city, as for the enmity to mankind. Their 
executions were so contrived as to expose them to de- 
rision and contempt; some were covered over with skins 
of wild beasts and torn to pieces by dogs; some were 
crucified; others, having been daubed over with com- 
bustible material, were set up as lights in the night time 
and thus burned to death. Nero made use of his own 
grounds as a theater on this occasion, and also exhibited 
the diversions of the circus; sometimes standing in a 
crowd as a spectator in the habit of a charioteer, at 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 169 

Other times driving the chariot himself; till at length 
those men, though really criminals and deserving exem- 
plary punishment, began to be commiserated as a people 
who were destroyed, not out of regard to the public wel- 
fare, but only to gratify the cruelty of one man. (An- 
nals, b. 15, c. 45.) As St. Paul and St. Peter were there 
in Rome in prison when this massacre took place, and 
so many Christians (above two hundred) were slain, no 
doubt they there lost their lives, as they would hardly 
leave them in the prison when, as they would have it, 
they were doing the most harm to them and their re- 
ligion and government of any that could be found. The 
date of the death of both of these great and good Apos- 
tles of the Lord Jesus Christ has been placed at different 
dates from the time of the burning of Rome, but when 
you look up the time given when Paul and Peter were 
last put in prison, you will find that they could not 
have escaped being brought into that great slaughter of 
the Christians. 

Some put this testimony thus: that Judea was first 
brought into subjection to the Romans by Pompey, af- 
ter which they give a summary account of their afflictions 
under Herod and his son and the emperors Augustus, 
Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero. He mentioned 
Felix, whom he represented as a bad man and tyrannical 
in his government; however, the people, he says, bore the 
exactions of their governor till the time of the procu- 
rator Cassius Florus, under whom the war began. Ces- 
tius Galius, president of Seris, came to his assistance, 
but he being defeated, Nero sent Vespasian into Judea, 
who was a general of great merit and reputation, and 
having under him good officers, in the space of two years, 
about A. D. 67 and A. D. 68, he reduced the open coun- 
try and all the cities of Judea excepting the city of 



I70 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

Jerusalem. The next year, A. D. 69, was taken up in 
civil wars, meaning the time of the short reigns of Galba, 
Otho, and Vitellius, and he tells of the accusation of 
Vespasian. The following year (and the beginning of it) 
Titus was appointed to attend to the affairs of Judea, 
and he now drew near to Jerusalem and besieged it. 
Tacitus supposes that Titus was in haste to go to Rome 
to enjoy the pleasures and splendors of the city; he 
therefore carried on the siege with the greatest of vigor. 
The army Hkewise was intent upon plunder and eager 
to gratify their revenge. The city was, however, strong 
by situation and with good walls and ramparts, the high 
towers of Antonias conspicuous from afar. The temple 
itself was Hke a citadel, well fortified. They had a 
fountain of water that ran continually and the mount- 
ains were hollowed under ground; moreover, they had 
pools and cisterns for preserving rain water. There was 
a great confluence of people, for the men of other cities 
had been reduced, and in general all the turbulent and 
seditious people of the nation came hither. There were 
three captains or heads of factions, Seman, John (called 
also Bergiaras), and Eleazar, and as many armies, who 
occupied several parts of the city among themselves. 
They had fierce contentions, and though great quanti- 
ties of provisions were consumed, Eleazar being killed, 
they were reduced to two factions. These fought with 
each other till the near approach of the Romans obliged 
them to an agreement. There were many prodigies fore- 
signifying their ruin, which was not to be averted by all 
the sacrifices and vows of the people, superstitious in 
their own way of worship, though different from all oth- 
ers. Armies were seen fighting in the air with brand- 
ished weapons. A fire fell upon the temple from the 
clouds. The doors of the temple were suddenly opened; 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 171^ 

at the same time there was a loud voice declaring that 
the gods were removing, which was accompanied by a 
sound as of a multitude going out. All such things were 
supposed by some to portend great calamities, but the 
most had a strong persuasion of the priests (that is, an- 
cient writings in the custody of the priests) that at this 
very time these should prevail, and that some one should 
come from Judea who should obtain the empire of the 
world, which ambiguities foretold Vespasian and Titus. 
But the common people, according to the usual influ- 
ence of human passions, having once appropriated to 
themselves this vast grandeur of the facts, could not be 
brought to understand its true meaning by all their ad- 
versaries. We have been assured that the number of 
the besieged amounted to 600,000. Tacitus puts it at 
a smaller number than Josephus, and more bore arms 
than could be expected from the number, for great was 
the resolution of all, both men and women. Against 
this people and city was Titus sent. As the city could 
not be taken by assault, different hosts were assigned 
to the several legions; battering engines of all kinds 
were prepared and all the methods hitherto practiced in 
sieges by the ancients, as well as new inventions, were 
employed on this occasion. (Tac. His., b. 5, 9-130) 

That Tacitus undoubtedly hated the Christians is so 
very obvious on the face of the preceding extracts that 
there need be no comment on that point, and you can 
see at a glance that no favor will be shown by this his- 
torian witness. So much the better, for what is ad- 
mitted by those that are enemies of any cause must be 
taken as true as against any objections. This historian 
fully shows the following facts in his writing up the his- 
tory of his ov/n country, in mingling with the people that 
were attempting and denying so far as best they could 



172 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

the religion of his own country and following a religion 
of their own, whose founder they claim was Jesus Christ, 
the Lord from Heaven: that in his writings he further 
admits that Jesus Christ is the founder of that sect which 
was known to the Roman historian as Christians, and 
that Jesus Christ was put to death as a criminal and 
ordered to the cross by Pontius Pilate and at the time 
that Tiberius was emperor of Rome, showing that the 
Messiah was born in the reign of Augustus, and that the 
reHgion of Jesus Christ (which they called a pernicious 
superstition) was checked for a while, but still more mys- 
terious unless the crucified criminal was publicly justified 
by a resurrection to life, for the pernicious superstition 
broke out again and spread not only over Judea, but 
reached all the countries clear to the city of Rome, and 
that this pernicious superstition began in Judea ; that the 
Christians found protection, shelter, and encouragement 
in Rome before Tacitus wrote his annals, which was 
after A. D. 122; that the Christians were persecuted in 
Rome as early as the year A. D. 64, if not prior to that 
date; that the Christians were referred to as dying for 
their faith and were put to death in various ways; a 
vast number were apprehended and condemned for ha- 
tred, as they claimed for the best interests of mankitjd, 
much more than for the burning of the city; they were 
hated as the offscouring of the earth and the filth of 
all things; their executions were contrived so as to ex- 
pose them to derision and contempt; they were de- 
stroyed not out of regard for the public welfare, but only 
to gratify the cruelty of one man; consequently they 
were really innocent of the crimes alleged against them, 
even in the better judgment of Tacitus himself; finally 
they began to be commiserated because they were so 
cruelly slaughtered. These palpable facts, some of which 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 173 

we call the gospel facts, and others implied in them, are 
fairly gleaned from the writings and the extracts from 
Tacitus. The facts and the epistles attached to them 
are to be separated by the judicious reasoner in exam- 
ining them by taking a fair and honest view of the whole 
situation. The calumnies of the reporter are to be re- 
garded according to his prejudices. Tacitus hated the 
Christians because they refused to worship his idol gods, 
and thus were denying his national religion and bringing 
it into discredit; and he, being a Roman statesman as 
well as a soldier, would exert his energies into taking any 
course which he might, in doing which he delighted much 
in honoring his great nation and government, as you 
well know there never was a nation of people that was 
more loyal to their govenrment than the Roman citizens, 
who were led to believe and did believe that it was a 
greater honor to be called a common citizen of Rome 
than to be the ruler of any other nation then existing 
on the earth; and it is a fact to be deplored, notwith- 
standing his opposition to the Christian religion and its 
followers, that the writings of Tacitus should become 
obsolete, for there is not any question but that he was 
one of the greatest Roman historians, and that the only 
thing left is a fragment of the fifth book of his history, 
from which the preceding extracts are taken. 

The final end of the renowned city of Jerusalem and 
its overthrow by Titus and his army is in full accord 
with the writings and history given by the historian 
Josephus. Where they write upon the same subject, 
they corroborate each other almost exactly. They both 
mention the three legions quartered in Judea, the Twelfth 
brought in from Syria and other legions from Alexandria, 
besides the armies of the Roman allies ; also kings Agrip- 
pa, Schemus, and Autischus, and a large body of Arabi- 



174 MORTALS AND IIMMORTALITY. 

ans, who were always averse to the Jews, and some 
volunteers of distinction even from Rome and through- 
out Italy, who were willing to serve under Titus, a gen- 
eral of such renown that they were desirous to signal- 
ize their valor before him and thereby recommend them- 
selves to his favor. This also verifies the predictions of 
Moses concerning the nation from afar of a fierce coun- 
tenance by which the Jews were to be punished for their 
apostacy. Much has been said of the facts of Pilate and 
his letter to Tiberius concerning Jesus Christ, and of 
his attempt in the Roman Senate to have Jesus Christ 
recognized and enrolled as a god. Justin Martyr, in his 
first Apology, presented to the emperor Antoninus Pius 
about the year 140, having spoking of the crucifixion 
and its attendant consequences, adds: "And that these 
things were so done, you may know from the acts made 
in the time of Pontius Pilate." TertuUian, in his Apol- 
ogy, A. D. 200, speaking of the crucifixion and resurrec- 
tion and the appearance of Jesus to the disciples, says: 
^'Of all those things relating to Jesus Christ, Pontius 
Pilate, in his conscience a Christian, sent an account to 
Tiberius, then emperor of Rome." And in another part 
of his Apologies he speaks as follows: *' There was an 
ancient decree that no one should be received as a deity 
unless he was first approved by the Senate. Tiberius, 
in whose time the Christian religion had its rise, having 
received from Palestine in Syria an account of such things 
as manifested our Savior's divinity, proposed to the 
Senate, giving his own vote first in his favor, that he 
should be placed among the gods; the Senate refused, 
because Tiberius himself declined that honor. Never- 
theless the Emperor persisted in his own opinion, and 
ordered that if any accused the Christians, they should 
be punished. 'Search,* says he, 'your own writings, and 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 175 

you will there find that Nero was the first emperor who 
exercised any acts of severity towards the Christians, 
because they were then very numerous at Rome."* 

Eusebius also states that when the wonderful resur- 
rection of our Savior took place and His ascension to 
Heaven, this fact was in the minds of all men; it being 
an ancient custom for the governors of provinces to 
write to the Emperor and give him a full account of 
new and remarkable occurrences that took place, in order 
that he might not be ignorant of anything. The resur- 
rection of our Savior being such, and so much talked of 
throughout all Palestine, Pilate informed the Emperor 
of it, and likewise of His miracles, which he had heard 
of, and that He had been raised up after being put to 
death; stating that He Was already believed by many 
(his enemies) to be a God. It is said that Tiberius re- 
ferred the matter to the Senate, but they refused their 
consent, under the pretence that it had not been first 
approved by them, there being an ancient law that no 
one should be deified among the Romans without the 
order of the Senate; but indeed because the saving and 
divine doctrine of the gospel needed not to be confirmed 
by human judgment and authority. However, Tiberius 
persisted in his former sentiment and allowed not any- 
thing to be done that was prejudicial to the doctrine of 
Jesus Christ. 

These things are also related by Tertullian, a man 
famous on other accounts, and particularly for his skill 
and great knowledge of the Roman laws, who speaks 
thus in his Apology of the Christians, written by him in 
the Roman tongue, afterwards translated into Greek. 
His words are thus: ** There was an ancient decree that 
no one should be consecrated as a deity by the Emperor 
unless he was first approved by the Senate. Marcus Au- 



176 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

relius knows this by his god, Alburius. This is to our 
purpose, for inasmuch as among you dignity is bestowed 
by human judgment. And if God does not please men, 
He shall not be God. And, according to this way of 
thinking, men must be propitious to God. Tiberius 
therefore, in whose time the Christian man was first 
known in the world, having received an account of this 
doctrine out of Palestine, where it began, communicated 
that account to the Senate, giving at the same time his 
own suffrage in favor of it; but the Senate rejected it, 
because it had not been approved by themselves. Never- 
theless the Emperor persisted in his judgment, and threat- 
ened death to such as should accuse the Christians." 
"Which," adds Eusebius, "could be no other than a dis- 
posal of divine providence." The doctrine of the gods, 
which was then in its beginning, might be preached all 
over the world without molestation. 

After examining all the evidence pro and con of these 
testimonies concerning the acts of Pilate and his letter 
to Tiberius and his motion thereon, although there 
is much in favor of them, yet, as there is some reason 
to doubt, and as it is our desire not to rely upon any 
testimony or incidents in any way of an ambiguous char- 
acter, we do not place them in our premises, and will 
not make use of them to be fully relied on as authentic, 
and the fact that they have come from heathen wit- 
nesses. We also place the monumental inscription con- 
cerning the Christians in the time of Nero found in Port- 
ugal, formerly called Lusitania, to Nero Claudius Caesar 
Augustus, high priest, for clearing the province of rob- 
bers and those who taught mankind a new superstition. 
By this "new superstition," as it has been seen, was 
meant the Christian religion, as well understood at that 
time. Nero (A. D. 68) did no doubt proscribe the Chris- 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 177 

tians, and it is most probable that his monument and 
inscription thereon are genuine, but the authenticity has 
been brought into question; it will therefore still be left 
in the doubtful list of authorities. Aside from these, there 
are so many positive and indisputable authorities that 
are herein shown and are produced in establishing the 
facts of the Christian religion being originated, taught, 
and established with the people who followed that doc- 
trine of the Lord Jesus Christ, that there is no use of 
insisting upon their genuineness. 

However, we will here relate what Suetonius has said 
about the Messiah, our Lord Jesus Christ, and His religion, 
claiming that it was established by Him among mankind. 
Caius Suetonius Tranquillus was a son of Suetonius and 
appears first in the reign of Trajan, under Adrian. The 
last named was secretary, which place he quit about the 
year A. D. 121. Pliny the Younger being a close friend 
of Suetonius, and Suetonius having no children by his 
wife, Pliny procured for him from Trajan the same priv- 
ilege that those had under the Roman law who had a 
family of three children. His recommendation to Em- 
peror Trajan shows the constancy and friendship that 
had existed between them. He was born about the be- 
ginning of the reign of Vespasian. It is claimed and 
maintained that this was about twenty years after the 
death of Nero, or about the year A. D. 88. He refers 
to himself as being a young man. It can then reason- 
ably be assumed that in the thirteenth year of Trajan's 
reign, or in the year of our Lord no, he was not less 
than forty years of age. He was the author of a great 
number of books, of which there are now remaining 
nothing but his lives of the first twelve Caesars and a 
part of a work concerning the illustrious Gearminareans 
and Reloncians. All the fragments attributed to Sue- 



178 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

tonius have been published v/ith a critical commentary 
by Roth. Elius Mania, vv^hose death is particularly men- 
tioned by Suetonius, was undoubtedly a man of very 
ancient and noble family, and Domitian had killed many 
of their senators. The Christians were generally of the 
meaner rank of people (because Jesus Christ brought the 
good tidings of great joy to poor people), and still more 
despised for their religion than for their condition. Had 
they embraced Christianity, they might have produced 
some dispute or disturbance which came to the Emperor's 
knowledge. This seems to be the meaning of Suetonius : 
that there were disturbances among the Jews and others 
at Rome upon occasions of Jesus Christ and His follow- 
ers. If this passage were clear, we should have the tes- 
timony from a heathen author of good note, that there 
were Christians at Rome before the end of the reign of 
Claudius, as indeed we know there were from the his- 
torians of the Roman Empire and from authentic writers 
of our own. (Acts 18:2-26 and also Rom. 16.) Though 
it may not be recorded clearly and decisively, it has 
an appearance of much probability, so that it has been 
testified among learned men of good judgment. This 
passage of Suetonius is expressly cited by Orosius, a 
Christian historian of the fifth century. But he was not 
clear about the meaning of it. In the life of Nero, 
whose reign began in the year of our Lord 54 and ended 
in 68, Suetonius says that Christians were punished, and 
they were a sort of men who followed a new and magical 
superstition. Suetonius here assures us that the Chris- 
tian religion was very recently started throughout Pal- 
estine, and that it had already gained footing in the 
Empire. From his calling it a ''magical superstition" 
it may be considered that there were some things of an 
extraordinary nature performed to justify the espousing 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 179 

and adhering to the rehgion of Jesus Christ, and it cer- 
tainly must have been regarded as of divine origin upon 
the ground of vSome wonderful things that had been ac- 
complished, which stood out and bore almost undisputed 
testimony to its truth, and in fact were of such a nature 
that its testimony could not be successfully disputed, or 
its adherents would not have recognized it and clung to 
it with such great tenacity and adopted it as their only 
hope of obtaining eternal life. Not only that, but they 
at the same time, in the estimation of their enemies, had 
abandoned their former position and religion and adhered 
to this new and unheard-of fanatical superstition. The 
Romans therefore considered that they were enemies to 
all mankind, and were great in their efforts and desires 
to disturb public worship that adhered to any other of 
the gods. 

The word "new," when applied to religion, is not ac- 
ceptable, for Tacitus says of the Jews: ''Whatsoever 
might be the origin of their religion, it certainly has the 
advantage of all other religions in its antiquity." That 
the Christians were maliciously and roughly handled in 
the days of Nero we have seen from Tacitus and his 
contemporary writings. Nevertheless it has been ob- 
served by some learned men that Suetonius does not 
say particularly that they were punished at Rome, or 
for setting fire to the city. His expressions referring 
thereto seem to be more gentle and might include more 
extensive sufferings in the provinces as well as in the 
city, of which we have positive proof from various Ro- 
man and Christian writers. You might observe that 
Suetonius speaks with accusation of the sufferings which 
the Christians endured in this reign, for they are men- 
tioned with divers other acts, ordinances, or institutions 
of Nero which were entitled to some consideration, as 



l8o MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

anyone will allow who observed the different articles in 
the same chapter. 

In his life of Vespasian, Suetonius also records the 
ambiguous oracle mentioned by Josephus and Tacitus. 
He says there have been men for a long time all over 
the East maintaining and asserting that it was in the 
Fates (in the decrees or books of the Fates) that at that 
time someone from Judea should obtain the empire of 
the world, and many of them assumed and believed that 
it was referring to the government and head of the Ro- 
man Empire. This opinion naturally arose because of 
the fact that their government was supposed to be the 
ruler of the whole world at that time, and thus the pre- 
diction that this king would ascend the throne at Rome. 
However, the Jews always interpreted this personage who 
was to come and take charge of a new kingdom to mean 
themselves, from their Scriptures, which had been so 
clearly and so plainly prophesied; and this being a fact, 
no doubt, caused the Jewish nation to rise in rebellion 
or war against the Roman government, and in their first 
efforts they had no little success against the Romans, and 
also overcame their own governors of Syria, who came 
to their assistance; this gave rise to a more general 
raising of armies, which caused greater efforts to be 
made at once by the Romans. Vespasian was appointed 
for that service, who, among other commanders under 
him, had his elder son, Titus, heading part of his army 
in good order. He entered upon the war with great 
vigor, and not without hazard to his own person, having 
been slightly wounded in an attack made at one of their 
towns and received several darts from his shield. 

The conspicuity given to these prevaiHng expecta- 
tions by Josephus, Titus, and Suetonius demands that 
we should emphatically notice it. Let it then be re- 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. i8i 

membered that in the Jewish prophets, then translated 
into the most learned and popular living languages and 
generally read all over the East, various express and 
clear predictions were written. "Seventy weeks [or 490 
years] are determined upon thy people, and upon thy 
holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an 
end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and 
to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the 
vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy.'* 
This gives the whole period of 490 years from the going 
forth of the decree to the coronation of the Messiah; 
to the anointing of the Most Holy. According to Sir 
Isaac Newton, it was 457 years from the seventh year 
of Artaxerxes to the birth of the Messiah, and to His 
death 490 years; but the same prophet, in his inter- 
pretation of the dream of the Chaldean monarch, posi- 
tively and unfiguratively asserts that in the days of the 
last kings (among the Roman emperors) the God of 
Heaven would set up a kingdom which would finally 
engross all the empires of the world, which kingdom 
would stand for ever and for ever; and there were then 
good grounds for the great prevailing expectation all 
over the East, that some person from Judea should in 
those times obtain the empire of the world. Rabbi Nehe- 
rustes, a Jew, who flourished about fifty years before the 
Christian era, said that these words quoted from Daniel 
certainly alluded to the times of the Messiah. Some of 
the things in the oracle which should be noticed are the 
time when a person should appear, the place where he 
should commence his conquest, the success of his enter- 
prise, the credit which he gained all through the East; 
these are set out and acknowledged by Josephus, Taci- 
tus, Suetonius, and also Philo, the Jewish writer, who 



1 82 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

was a contemporary with Josephus and the Apostles. 
They all agree upon that question. 

You will find that Philo and Eusebius (pages 21 and 
25) make quite a number of references to the Christians. 
It may also be observed from the Jewish prophet that 
the pagan sybils gave out their oracles the same year 
that Pompey took Jerusalem, and that one of the sybil 
orators made a great noise that Nature was about to 
bring forth a king to the Romans. Suetonius says that 
the Romans were so terrified that the Senate passed and 
issued a decree that there was a man to be born that 
year who should be educated and in the lifetime of Au- 
gustus. He says that there was to be born a personage 
who would give great hopes of applying this prophecy 
to themselves. Appen, Sallust, Plutarch, and Cicero all 
say that this prophecy of the sybil stirred up Cornelius !Len- 
tulus to think that he was going to be the man who 
should be the king of Rome. Others appHed it to the 
great Caesar. Cicero, however, sneered and derided at 
the application, and affirmed that this prophecy should 
not be applied to anyone born in the Roman Empire. 
Even Virgil, the poet, who wrote his Eclogues about 
the time of Herod the Great, compliments the consul 
Pollio with this prophecy, supposing that it might refer 
to his son Saloninus, then born. Virgil substantially 
quotes and verifies the prophecies of Isaiah and applies 
them to this child Saloninus: 

"The last age decreed by Fate to come. 
And a new frame of all things does begin ; 
A holy progeny from Heaven descends. 
Auspicious be his birth. 
Which puts an end to the iron age. 
And from whence shall arise 
A golden state for glories through the earth/* 



MORTALS AND IMMORTAUTY. 183 

Then the poet alludes to Isaiah 65:25: ''The wolf 
and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat 
straw like an ox. They shall not hurt nor destroy in 
all my holy mountains. Nor shall the flocks fierce lions 
fear, nor serpents shall be there, nor herb of poisonous 
juice; but what footsteps of our sins remain are blotted 
out, and the whole world set free from her perpetual 
bondage and her fear." The very words of Haggai are 
by the poet next referred to: *' Enter on thy honors, 
in now the time of spring of God, O thou great gift of 
Jove. Behold, the world, heaven, earth, and seas do 
shake. Behold how all rejoice to greet that glorious 
day." Virgil, as if he were skilled in the Jewish Script- 
ures, goes on to state that these glorious times should 
not immediately succeed the birth of that wonderful 
Child, yet some remains shall still be left of ancient 
fraud, and war shall still go on. Now the question is 
not whether Virgil applied this partly to Augustus, Apol- 
lo, or Saloninus then born, but whether he did not apply 
it to the general expectation everywhere prevalent, that 
a wonderful person be born and a new age commenced. 
Now, as no document or books of facts or of the 
future destinies of our race can be adduced from the 
heathen nations, in which there are many such intima- 
tions as those above quoted, and as the Jewish Script- 
ures abound in such intimations, and as they were read 
all over throughout the East, both in Hebrew and in 
Greek, long before the birth of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, 
we must value very highly the singular concurrence of 
so many alien writers attesting not only the existence, 
but the intelligibility of the prophecies concerning Jesus 
Christ, our King. And we may add that it appears very 
difficult, if not absolutely impossible, for any intelHgent 
unbeHever to dispose of these witnesses or the facts 



i84 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

which they attest in any way honorable to his intelli- 
gence and honesty, and deny them he can not, unless he 
denies everything written by the Jews, Gentiles, and 
Christians. 

Suetonius is not a historian, but in his biography of 
the life of Titus he speaks of the overthrow of Jerusalem. 
While Titus yet served under Vespasian, he took Tori- 
chea and Gamala, two strong cities of Judea, and having 
in an engagement lost his own horse, he mounted upon 
another, whose rider had been killed in fighting against 
him. Titus had been left in Judea to complete the re- 
duction of the whole country, and in the siege of Jeru- 
salem killed seven of the enemies with as many darts. 
He took that city, no doubt, on his birthday, and was 
then saluted by the soldiers with the title of ''emperor." 
Titus triumphed at Rome with his father. We get out 
of this testimony that Jesus Christ is the leader of the 
Christians; that the Christian religion was introduced 
by extraordinary powerful means, and v/as called a new 
and magical superstition; that the followers of this new 
religion were persecuted relentlessly during the reign of 
Nero; that the Jews were banished from Rome by Clau- 
dius, and have the title attached to them as Christians, 
as the Romans thought the Jews were backed behind 
this new pernicious superstition. St. Luke sets out and 
states in his Gospel, referring to one coming from Judea 
and obtaining the empire of the world, that they were 
in a rebelhon against the Romans and the city of Judea; 
also they were subdued, and in doing so the great city of 
Jerusalem was besieged, destroyed, and overcome by the 
Romans, as foretold by Jesus Christ and recorded by 
His Apostles. 



MORTALS AND IMMORTAUTY. 185 

CHAPTER XII. 

Adrian. 

In searching out and looking over the many wonder- 
ful and convincing evidences of the truth and genuineness 
and foundation of the Christian religion, it would be 
incomplete without adding to its proof some things that 
were done and recognized by the emperor of Rome whose 
full name was PubHus -^Hus Adrianus. He was bom at 
Rome on the 24th day of January, A. D. 76, and in 
history is said to have died on the loth day of July, 
A. D. 138. He ascended the throne at the time of the 
death of Trajan, in A. D. 117, on or about the nth day 
of August. This man was a tyrant as against men who 
were about his equals, and he had very many of them 
slaughtered when he came into power, which he accom- 
pUshed without doubt in order to clear up the feeling 
against him v/hich he regarded and believed all ema- 
nated from and through these men, whom he wreaked 
his vengeance upon by having them executed and put 
out of the way, so they could not do him harm during 
his reign. He had a law made that no senator should 
be killed without the order of the Senate. But his friend- 
ship shown to the Christians has let him come down 
into history as a very reasonable man. He did not issue 
any new edicts against the Christians, but let stand what 
came to him from the emperor Trajan, and quite a num- 
ber of Christians within the Roman Empire did, no 
doubt, suffer martyrdom about A. D. 126 and A. D. 129. 
Adrian went to Athens and stayed there quite a time, 
partly on business and partly for pleasure, and during 



1 86 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

that time he was presented with Apologies from Quad- 
ratus and Aristides. 

Sulpicius Severus places the fourth persecution in his 
reign, but claims and insists that the same emperor 
afterwards restrained it, as will be shown by a rescript, 
which will hereinafter be produced in full. Crosius puts 
Adrian among the persecuting emperors, and puts the 
fourth persecution in the time of Marcus Antoninus. It 
is found in the ecclesiastical history of Eusebius that 
Serenius Granianus, proconsul, wrote to Adrian that it 
seemed to him unjust that the Christians should be put 
to death in the most ignominious manner in which they 
were put to death, only to gratify the clamors of the 
people, without trial and without any crime proved 
against them, and that Adrian in answer to the letter 
wrote to Minecius Fecundanus, proconsul of Asia, order- 
ing that no man should be put to death without a ju- 
dicial process and a legal trial. It is manifest from the 
conclusion of Justin Martyr's first Apology, which was pre- 
sented to Antoninus the Pious and the Senate of Rome, 
that the rescript of Adrian was subjoined to it, and from 
Eusebius we know that it was written in Latin. He 
translated it into Greek and inserted it into his ecclesi- 
astical history; thus we have it, and whence it has been 
put at the end of Justin's Apology in the same language. 
The reason why this rescript was sent to Minecius Fe- 
cundanus is supposed to be that Serenius was near ex- 
piring. Besides Justin Martyr's early and express au- 
thority, this rescript is also mentioned by MeHto in his 
Apology to Marcus Antoninus, whom he reminds that his 
grandfather Adrian had written in their favor. As to 
others, so particularly to Eecundanus, proconsul of Asia; 
this rescript is also referred to by Sulpicius Severus, as 
before observed. The genuineness of it, therefore, is un- 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 187- 

doubtable. It is very reasonably supposed that besides 
the letter of Serenius Granianus, the Apologies of Ouad- 
ratus and Aristides, presented about the same time, con- 
tributed to procure this favorable rescript, which is plain- 
ly hinted at in the Chronicles of Eusebius. 

Here is the rescript literally translated from the Greek 
of Eusebius: "Adrian to Minecius: I have received a 
letter written to me by the illustrious Serenius Granianus, 
whom you have succeeded. It seems then to me that 
this is an affair which ought not to be passed over with- 
out being examined into, if it were only to prevent dis- 
turbance being given to the people. And further, that 
there may be no room left for informers to practice their 
wicked arts. If, therefore, the people of the provinces 
would appear publicly and in a legal way charge the 
Christians, that they may answer for themselves in court, 
let them take that course, and not proceed by importu- 
nate demands and loud clamor ers only; for it is much the 
best method, if any bring accusations, that you should 
take cognizance of them. If, then, anyone shall accuse 
and make out anything contrary to the laws, do you 
determine according to the nature of the crime. But, 
my Hercules, if the charge be only a calumny, do you 
take care to punish the author of it with the severity 
it deserves." 

By ** importunate demands and loud clamorers," or, 
in other words, on clamorers' petitions, learned men gen- 
erally understood the popular cry of those times, "The 
Christians to the lions!" Nor was it an unusual thing, 
as Valesius observes in his notes upon the place, for the 
people at Rome or in the provinces in the time of public 
shows, when they were got together in the theater, by 
their loud cries and their tumultuous behavior to gain 
their will of the presidents and even of the emperors 



i88 ]\TORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

themselves. The method had been practiced against the 
Christians, and it was Hkely that men were brought be- 
fore the presidents on general accusations without dis- 
tinct proofs. The Emperor was apprehensive that evil- 
minded men would sometimes hurry on to death men 
who v/ere not Christians. Therefore he directs the pro- 
consul that no men should be punished as Christians 
without a fair and public trial before himself in court. 
The Emperor's orders are obscure: '*If anyone shall ac- 
cuse and make out anything contrary to the laws, do 
you determine [or punish] according to the nature of the 
crime." Some may be apt to think that the Emperor 
now appointed that men should not be punished for be- 
ing Christians unless some real crime were alleged and 
proved upon them. But that does not clearly be the 
meaning; nor can we reasonably suppose that the edict 
of Irena^us is here reported, according to which if a man 
were accused and proved to be a Christian, a president 
is required to punish him unless he recant. Neverthe- 
less the rescript must be allowed to have been beneficial 
to the Christians. Several ancient writers, as we have 
seen, say that afterwards the persecutions, which before 
had been violent, were restrained and moderated. The 
Christians were hereby taken out of the hands of the 
common people and the tumultuous rabble and brought 
before the governors of provinces to be examined in open 
court, and not to be condemned without evidence. This 
undoubtedly was considered a great relief and advantage 
brought to men who were as much disliked by the gener- 
ality of their neighbors as the Christians were. Melito, 
as before quoted, says that Adrian wrote in favor of the 
Christians to Fecundanus, proconsul of Asia, by which 
we are led to understand that this rescript was sent to 
other governors of provinces, as well as to Fecundanus, 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 189 

or that this rescript sent to him was to be the rule of 
conduct to be adhered to by all the rulers of the prov- 
inces, and not to Fecundanus only. 

From this rescript and from the letter which gave 
account to it we learn that there were then Christians 
in Asia ; it is probable they were there in great numbers, 
for the affair appeared worthy of the Emperor's con- 
sideration. But Christians, as is apparent, were odious 
to the generahty of the people in that country; there- 
fore men must have had some good reason for e«jbracing 
a profession which rendered them obnoxi(?V£ to all their 
neighbors and hable to bring death and destruction to 
them and their families and confiscation of all their prop- 
erty. From what we have seen of Quadratus and Aris- 
tides, two learned Christian apologists, and the emperor 
Adrian, and also Serenius and Fecundanus, two governors 
of the province of Asia, it may be concluded with cer- 
tainty that the Christians were now well known to the 
Roman emperors as well as throughout the Roman Em- 
pire. Indeed, the Christians no doubt diligently embraced 
all favorable opportunities to make themselves and their 
own innocence, and the principles of their religion and 
the ground and reasons of their belief, well known to all 
men, and especially to the emperors and to all other 
magistrates and officers who had power to persecute 
them and destroy them. This would, no doubt, be the 
way and means by which they would propagate their 
rehgion and gradually wipe off the calumnies that had 
been invented against them and with which they were 
troubled for a while. 

Quadratus and Aristides presented their Apologies to 
Adrian at the time of the celebration of the Eleusinian 
mysteries at Athens, when there was a concourse of men 
of all ranks, especially of the highest and most eminent 



I90 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

and most distinguished for their learning and zeal for 
the established rights. At that very time those apolo- 
gists made public and pleaded the cause of their religion 
and of their brethren, the professors of it; nor did they 
make a contemptible figure. Their discourses were ration- 
al, eloquent, and persuasive, and they were followed by 
a relaxation of the violence of the persecution which for 
some time had raged in several provinces through the 
prevailing animosity of the people, and it is particularly 
observed by Eusebius in his ''Evangelical Preparation." 
In the reign of Adrian the Christian religion is drawn 
out in the eyes of all men. 

There are others besides our apologists who are en- 
titled to applause in this place. Serenius Granianus is 
styled by Adrian, in his rescript, an illustrious man, and 
by Jerome, in his Chronicle, a truly noble person. It 
can hardly be doubted but that he was a man of a very 
generous mind and a lover of justice and equity and who 
no doubt espoused the cause of the Christians when the 
tide of hatred ran very greatly against them. His suc- 
cessor, Fecundanus, to whom the rescript was sent, may 
have been a man of like disposition, nor can you hardly 
withhold from saying in this place here, ''Be it to the 
honor of the emperor Adrian that it does not appear 
that he ever himself ordered or issued any orders for 
persecuting the Christians.'* The persecution which they 
had suffered in the beginning of his reign was no doubt 
owing to the blind and ignorant bigotry and violence of 
the common people. When the proconsul of Asia sent 
him a letter representing the hardships which the Chris- 
tians lay under beyond most and in fact all other men, 
he sent a favorable rescript which could not but be and 
actually was of great advantage to them; and he re- 
ceived the Apologies of Quadratus and Aristides in be- 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 191 

lialf of a despised and honest and righteous persecuted 
people, who suffered always, apparently without resent- 
ment. So far from being provoked at their importunity, 
he gratified their requests and moderated the displeasure 
of men against those whose cause they had pleaded. If 
moderation be a virtue (as it certainly is), it is more 
specially commendable in a man of great power and of 
high station. 

A passage formerly omitted will now be transcribed 
from the Apology of Quadratus, which v/as no doubt the 
first of all the written apologies presented to the Roman 
emperors. It is in these very words: "The works of 
our Savior were always conspicuous, for they were real; 
both they that were healed and they that were raised 
from the dead, who are not seen only when they were 
healed or raised, but for a long time afterwards. Not 
only whilst He dwelled on the earth, but also after His 
departure, and for a long time after His ascension, that 
many of them have reached to our time." Jerome sup- 
porteth that Quadratus himself saw several of those per- 
sons who had been the subjects of our Savior. 

Besides the rescript, there is a letter from Adrian to 
Servianus, husband of Paulina, the Emperor's sister, who 
was consul in A. D. 134. It was preserved by Vapiscus, 
one of the writers of the Augustine history, who flour- 
ished about the year A. D. 300. Adrian had been some 
time in Egypt, having left it when he got into Syria. 
He v/rote that letter to his brother-in-law in the year 
A. D. 134. I shall transcribe it from the historian Cem- 
nion: ''The Egyptians, as you well know," says Vapis- 
cus, "are vain, fond of innovation, men of all characters; 
for there are many then Christians and Samaritans and 
such as take prodigious liberty in concerning the times." 



192 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

That none of the Egyptians may be offended with me, 
I shall produce a letter of Adrian taken from the books 
of Apalegian, his freedman, in which the character of 
the Egyptians is clearly represented: ''Adrian Augustus 
to the consul Servianus, wishes health. I have found 
Egypt, my dear Servianus, which you commended to 
me, all over fickle and inconstant and continually shaken 
by the slightest reports of fame. The worshipers of Se- 
rapis are Christians, and they are devoted to Serapis, 
who call themselves Christ's bishops, no doubt because 
there is no ruler of the Jewish synagogue, no Samaritan, no 
presbyter of the Christians, no mathematician, no sooth- 
sayer, no anointer; even a patriarch, if he should come 
to Egypt, would be required by some to worship Serapis, 
by others Christ, a seditious and turbulent sort of man. 
However, the city is rich and prosperous. Nor are any 
idle; some are employed in making glass, others paper, 
others weaving linen. They have one God; Him the 
Christians, Him the Jews, Him all the Gentiles worship.'* 

It can not be needful for me to explain all the several 
sorts of people here spoken of, nor ought it to be thought 
strange that the Christians share in the Emperor's sat- 
ire and are represented by him as fickle and inconstant 
like the other Egyptians. It seems from this letter that 
the Christians were very numerous at Alexandria and 
in other parts of Egypt when Adrian was in that coun- 
try, and it must be acknowledged to be certainly very 
remarkable that, within a century after the resurrection 
of Jesus Chiist, the Savior should have so many follow- 
ers in Asia and in Egypt, as is certainly manifest from 
this one of the Emperor's authentic writings, and all this 
took place without any recognition whatever of the civil 
government. This fact would almost be a lesson to-day 
to Christ's followers and devotees, as to the minghng of 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 193 

Christ's religion with civil government, or taking into 
Christ's sanctuary any of the affairs of the world's gov- 
ernments or of worldy men's conduct or actions, when- 
ever they are or can be applied in any way to the gov- 
ernment of man ; for it does seem that doing so certainly 
detracts from the high standard of spiritual life which 
our Savior Jesus Christ taught men to adhere to. These 
people, located in those countries in those dark days of 
God's kingdom, it would seem that it would be almost 
impossible to open up their eyes sufficiently for them to 
espouse Christ's religion against the wonderful opposi- 
tion which they would have in so doing, not only coming 
from their own people, but the various different kinds 
of people that it was shown lived and mingled among 
the inhabitants of that country. Jesus Christ's bishops, 
who had already become established and fixed there to 
propagate and diffuse the Christian religion, must have 
been filled with the Spirit and worked with a fervency 
of unparalleled spiritual power. 

We further find by the writings of Adrian, Pliny, and 
many other historians, that the Church of Jesus Christ 
was organized and equipped with all its officials at this 
day, and well established throughout Egypt and Asia, 
and all this was accomplished within almost a half-century 
after the Savior had ascended to Heaven; and it can be 
further observed that this religion had been fully con- 
veyed to all the Roman governors and emperors within 
one lifetime after the Savior had given His direction to 
His Apostles to preach His gospel to all men. They 
converted, it is recorded, some of the Roman officers to 
their faith, and in doing so caused those men to be placed 
in the attitude of traitors to their government. When 
you take into consideration that fact, and then further 
view the situation in that they took on a new rehgion, 



194 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

which was very unpopular to the world at the time when 
they were converted, and then that the ones who brought 
about the conversion of these Roman officers were men 
without learning or experience (who always during their 
life had been the followers of the sea, fishermen), you 
can not help but feel that those men were assisted in their 
efforts to bring about the results they did by a power 
beyond their own. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

LUCIAN. 

The testimony that we expect to derive and retain 
in this instance is from this Greek author, who was born 
in Somasata, on the Euphrates, about A. D. 120, and 
died in Egypt about A. D. 200; his parents being Jews. 
They could not give him an education. He was appren- 
ticed when about fourteen years of age to his maternal 
uncle, a reputable sculptor in his native city; receiving 
a severe flogging for an act of carelessness, he returned 
home and exercised himself to the study of rhetoric and 
literature. He traveled for some time in Ionia, and hav- 
ing completed his studies, began to practice as an ad- 
vocate at Antioch. But meeting with no success, he was 
drawn to writing speeches for others. He next visited 
the greater part of Greece, Italy, and Gaul, giving lect- 
ures in the cities. At Athens he made himself familiar 
with the Attic dialect and cultivated an acquaintance 
with a philosopher, Demonax. In Gaul he appears to 
have remained for several years, and here he chiefly 
gained his profession and reputation and made himself 
rich. On returning to his native country he applied 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. IQS 

himself to writing, but still traveled occasionally, visiting 
Ionia and Achseia about A. D. i6o or 165 and Paph- 
lagonia about 170; while in Paphlagonia he planned 
various contrivances for exposing the impostures of the 
pseudo-prophet Alexander, who accordingly ordered the 
crew of the vessel in which Lucian was returning home 
to throw him overboard. From this fate he was saved 
only by the intervention of the captain, who had him 
conveyed out of the ship and put on the shore. In his 
latter days he was appointed procurator of part of Egypt, 
and was in expectation of a proconsulship when he died. 
The works of Lucian are of a very miscellaneous char- 
acter. The best known are his Dialogues. His com- 
positions exhibited various degrees of merit. 

Among his writings is a letter, and it is deemed best 
to set out all that portion of it relating to the subject 
here under discussion. He writes in the letter to Cronius 
concerning the death of one Peregrinus (who was also 
called Protius), who pubHcly biurnt himself in the sight 
of all Greece soon after the Olympic games were over in 
the year of our Lord 165, or some others have placed it 
in the year A. D. 169, not long after which this history 
of him was written by Lucian; Peregrinus, according 
to Lucian's character of him, was a person who rambled 
from place to place and from one sect of philosophy to 
another. **0n account of becoming in disfavor with the 
people at his place of living, he concluded to make a 
trip abroad and travel in foreign countries for informa- 
tion, and there he learned the wonderful doctrine of the 
Christians by conversing with their priests and scribes 
near Palestine, and in a short time he showed they were 
but children to him, for he was a prophet, high priest, 
ruler of a synagogue, uniting all offices in himself alone. 
Some books he interpreted and explained; others he 



196 MORTAI.S AND IMMORTALITY. 

wrote, and they spoke of him as a god, and took him for 
a law-giver, and honored him with the title of Master. 
They, therefore, still worship that great man who was 
crucified in Palestine, because he introduced into the 
world this new religion. For this reason Protius was 
taken up and put into prison, which very thing was of 
no small service to him afterwards, because of the fact 
of giving him great reputation to his importers and grat- 
ifying his vanity. The Christians were much grieved for 
his imprisonment, and tried always to procure his lib- 
erty; not being able to effect that, they did him all 
sorts of kind offices, and not in a careless manner, but 
with the greatest assiduity; for even betimes in the 
morning there would be at the prison old women, some 
widows, and also little orphan children, and some of 
the chief of their men, by corrupting the keepers, would 
get into the prison and stay the whole night there with 
him, and then they would have a good supper together 
and their sacred discourses. And this excellent Pere- 
grinus (for so he was still called) was thought by them 
to be an extraordinary person, no less than another Soc- 
rates; even from the cities of Asia, some Christians came 
to him by an order of the body to reHeve, encourage, and 
comfort him. For it is incredible what expedition they 
use when any of their friends are known to be in trouble. 
In a word, they spare nothing upon such an occasion, 
and Peregrinus chained brought him in a good sum of 
money from them, for these miserable men have no doubt 
but that they shall be immortal and live forever. There- 
fore they contemn death and many surrender themselves 
to suffering. Moreover, their first law-giver has taught 
them that they are all brethren, when once they have 
turned and renounced the gods of the Greeks and wor- 
ship that Master of theirs, who was crucified, and en- 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 197 

gaged to live according to His laws. They have also 
a sovereign contempt for all the things of this world and 
look upon them as common, and trust one another with 
them without any particular security, for which reason 
any subtile fellow by good management may impose on 
this simple people and grow rich among them. But 
Peregrinus was set at liberty by the governor of Syria, 
who was a favorer of philosophy, who, perceiving his 
madness and that he had a mind to die in order to get 
a name, let him out, not judging him so much as worthy 
of punishment. Then to his native place Peregrinus re- 
turned, partly in hope of recovering his father's estate; 
but, meeting with difficulties, he made over to the Par- 
sians all the estate he might expect from his father, who 
then extolled him as the greatest of philosophers, a law- 
yer of his country, and another Diogenes or Socrates. 
He then went abroad again well supplied by the Chris- 
tians with all traveling charges, by whom also he was 
accompanied, and lived in great plenty. Thus it went 
with him for some while. At length they parted, having 
given also some offence by eating, as it was supposed, 
some things not allowed by them. This man was 
very old when he put an end to himself. No doubt 
when he was the most active in his religious worship 
was during the earhest part of his life. You might 
put it about A. D. 160 or A. D. 169. The name of 
Peregrinus was given to him by the Christians, and by 
that name he went while laboring amongst them; but 
out among the other parts of the world he was better 
known as Pro tins." 

This testimony must be received as authentic, for 
Lucian is not a friend of the Christian religion, and in 
his letter he admits that this religion did exist and that 
its founder was Jesus Christ, and that they worshiped 



198 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

Him as a God, and that the relations between the people 
who followed this wonderful man were such that they had 
full confidence in one another, so they never took any 
security from each other for any accommodation from 
one to the other; and Lucian adds that a shrewd, cal- 
culating, unscrupulous man could go among them and 
very easily make his fortune; that the Founder of this 
religion was crucified in Palestine; He was their Master 
and the author of the first principles received by them; 
and that these Christians had strong hopes of immortal 
life, also a contempt for worldly things and its enjoy- 
ments. On account of their religion, they would suffer 
and endure many inflictions and hardships perpetrated 
against them, either in person or in property, and not 
resent them. Their Master had recommended among 
them to have that mutual love to one another, and he 
reports that this did prevail among them to such an 
extent that if any of them got into trouble, they would 
do all in their power to relieve them from their distressed 
condition; that this fidelity to each other was known 
by all men at that time. It is no discredit to them 
that they were imposed upon by this Peregrinus, who 
was admitted by many others, and Lucian might have 
overdrawn his perfidy; and then, after he left the Chris- 
tians the life of Peregrinus might have changed materi- 
ally from what it was when he was first converted to 
the Christian religion. 

This account also evidently alludes to the twenty-first 
and twenty-second chapters of the Apocalypse, showing 
that the book of Revelation was well known and read 
at that time, which could not have been later than A. D. 
180, and probably as early as A. D. 145. We will here 
recount or set out a writing which was composed by 
Lucian, who says that it is a piece of fiction that he has 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 199 

written. The object of here referring to this is that it 
is thought that he never could have written this fiction 
without being well acquainted with the book of Revela- 
tion, which, if true, shows positively that the then known 
world had before them this part of the new gospel. 

Lucian states that he and his companions, having 
traveled a great way, came to an island of the blessed, 
where Rhadamanthus of Crete reigned. Some time af- 
ter they came ashore they were taken into custody and 
were bound with roses, there being no other chains in 
the country, which, too, fell off of themselves when they 
were set at liberty. There were then several causes to 
be tried before the king of the country. Theirs was 
the fourth in order. When their cause came on, they 
were asked how they came to be there in their country 
upon that island when they were yet living. When they 
had related their voyage, they were ordered to withdraw. 
The judge, having consulted with his assessors and coun- 
sellors, determined that after death they should be pun- 
ished for their curiosity and presumption. For the pres- 
ent they might converse with the heroes of the country, 
but the term of their sojourn there might not exceed 
seven months. They then were conducted into the city, 
which is all gold, surrounded by a wall of emeralds. 
(Rev. 22.) "There are seven gates, made of the wood 
of the cinnamon. The pavement of the city and the 
ground within the wall is ivory. The temple of all gods 
is built of beryl stone. The altars in them are very large, 
consisting of one stone only, which is the amethyst, upon 
which they offer hecatombs. Around the city flows a 
river of the purest oil; the breadth of which is a hun- 
dred royal cubits, the depth such as is most convenient 
for swimming in it. Their baths are large houses of 
glass, kept warm with fires, and of cinnamon instead of 



200 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

water. They have warm dew in the basement. Their 
dress is purple, made of the finest spider-webs. None 
:grow old here, but they remain as they were when they 
arrived. They have no night, nor altogether bright day, 
but such light as precedes the rising of the sun ; nor have 
they more than one season in a year, for it is always 
spring, and the west is the only wind. The country 
abounds with all sorts of flowers and plants, which are 
always flourishing. Their vines bear twelve times in the 
year, yielding fruit every month, called by them menaus, 
instead of corn. The stalks have ready-prepared leaves 
at their tops, like mushrooms. There are in the city 
365 fountains of water and as many of honey, and 500 
tons of oil, and there are seven rivers of milk and eight 
of wine." 

In looking over the statements herein, and all the facts 
referred to by Lucian, and in recounting the statements 
and references made relative to the Christian rehgion 
as well as wherein it refers to its followers and its gos- 
pels, as shown at the same time from the standpoint of 
a pagan and unbeliever, who considered it nothing but 
a fanatical superstition that the ignorant people of Pal- 
estine had fallen into, and called them at times Chris- 
tian Jews and at other times Christians, following a man 
whom they called Jesus Christ and worshiping him as 
some god, you must conceive and admit that it fully 
establishes the fact that the Christian religion was started 
by Jesus Christ, and that at the time I^ucian wrote his 
work the people were worshiping Jesus Christ and fol- 
lowing after the Christian religion in very much the 
same manner as is done to-day, having the same faith 
and hope of eternal life that all followers of the blessed 
Christ have at this time. It has been heretofore stated, 
and we will here again refer to it, that the Christians were 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 201 

Jews and their leader Jesus Christ was a Jew. That is why 
the people were called Jews, or Christian Jews at times — 
that their religion had emanated from a Jew. It had 
also been charged that at the time of Herod the Great 
there appeared a reformer, who was a just man, by the 
name of John the Baptist; that the political history of 
Galilee, Samaria, and Syria in the times of the New 
Testament was just as represented by the Christian his- 
torians, Matthew, Mark, I,uke, and John; that there 
was a general expectation all over the East that in Judea 
there would come forward a person upon whom all the 
government of the earth would fall; that this expecta- 
tion had its foundation in the books of the prophets, 
and that in accordance with those prophecies Jesus Christ 
was born in Judea during the reign of Augustus Caesar, 
and that He certainly founded the sect called Chris- 
tians; that the religion which He taught was a new 
and magical superstition, as they called it, and it began 
in Judea; that the circumstances of Jesus Christ's na- 
tivity were extraordinary, and that His parentage was 
obscure and humble, and that He, while an infant, was 
carried down into Egypt by His parents, because of the 
threatenings of Herod and the persecutions of the in- 
fants ; that when the persecution of the infants was over 
and Herod had died. He was returned to His native 
home in Galilee. This Messiah, or Son of God, per- 
formed some wonderful things and taught a new doc- 
trine, and some of His disciples were called in Judea and 
were of humble origin, but became influential and con- 
spicuous and powerful in their efforts to convince men 
of the importance of following Jesus Christ, all through- 
out the provinces of the Roman Empire, where each one 
of them was assigned to carry the gospel to the Gentiles 
and the pagan world, where this new religion and doc- 



202 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

trine was disseminated. Under the procuratorship of 
Pontius Pilate in Judea, and by his authority, Jesus 
Christ was pubHcly executed and crucified as a criminal, 
while Tiberius was emperor of Rome. After the Savior 
was crucified this superstition was then checked for a 
while, but aferwards it began to spread all over Judea 
and even through the Roman Empire, including all its 
provinces, and during the reign of Tacitus there was a 
multitude of Christians all through the large cities and 
in the small towns, and even through the country, so 
that their temples at one time were almost entirely de- 
serted. This new Christianity, or religion, or superstition, 
was opposed by the rulers of Judea and by the Romans, 
and the adherents of it were most cruelly punished and 
put to death in various most wicked manners. The 
Jewish government was entirely overthrown, and the 
city of Jerusalem, including its great temple, was ut- 
terly destroyed, and all of its inhabitants carried away 
and dispersed all over the world, as predicted and proph- 
esied by the Lord Jesus Christ and His Apostles and 
Moses and some of the other prophets about 1500 years 
B. C. Those who followed after this new religion were 
called Christian people, made a confession and were bap- 
tized, and met at stated times to worship the Lord Jesus 
Christ as their God, and they could not be persuaded 
to take any other gods under the penalty of the most 
torturous death. During the time of the worship they 
always took upon themselves certain vows and pledges 
to do no wrong, and to be faithful and true to one an- 
other and to their faith, and they further assembled 
afterwards to eat a harmless meal. The rulers of the 
different countries wherein they were stationed regarded 
these actions and customs as nothing but obstinancy 
and stubbornness on their part, in their persisting and 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 203 

refusing to take a different course and comply in the 
worshiping of the gods and espousing the reHgion in the 
country wherein they were located. And they had bish- 
ops among them, and also elders and deacons as servants, 
as the Romans called them, and they appeared to have 
a complete organization among themselves, and to main- 
tain this organization they were ready at any and all 
times to sacrifice their lives in this world, and cherished 
the hope that was promised them by their God of im- 
mortality and eternal life in the world to come. They 
were always charitable, loving, and kind to all men, and 
they were possessed of a loving nature toward each 
other. All these things are admitted and told about 
them by their enemies and those who had nothing in 
common in their trade or religion. These facts are gath- 
ered from the Jews and from the leading men of Rome 
and other nations of the earth, and they have all agreed 
on one thing, and that is that this people were following 
this new fanatical superstition, and that they themselves 
did not or would not lend anything to make it in any 
way popular or put the stamp of influence to it, so that 
men might be drawn to its portals, but they were at all 
times exercising all the powers of state and every device 
that they could conceive of to stamp it out and bring 
its devotees into condemnation and contempt. 

Setting out the different emperors of Rome and their 
statements admitting the existence of this new super- 
stition and religion and its founder, Jesus Christ, has 
been done for the reason that they were the most learned, 
powerful, and conspicuous characters among the men of 
all nations of the earth at that time, and had at their 
hands the greatest opportunity of knowing and getting 
at the true facts that really existed relative to the com- 
mencement and starting of the new gospels under the 



204 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

Lord Jesus Christ; and the history of Rome, which 
shows these facts, is most authentic and reHable, and 
can not, in fact, be gainsaid or ignored by any true 
investigator, charging the same with not having real 
genuine authenticity, and should convince all people who 
are seeking the real knowledge pertaining to the estab- 
lishment and dissemination of the new Christian dis- 
pensation by the Son of God, Who is proclaimed by 
His Father, that He so loved the world that He sent 
His only begotten Son into the world, that whosoever be- 
lieveth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting 
life; and that in accordance with this promise these 
things have taken place, and that He did come and 
perform the mission on which His Father sent Him. 



I 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Epictktus. 

The subject of the evidence here introduced that we 
will offer was a Roman Stoic philosopher, born in Hierop- 
olis, in Phrygia, in the first century of our era and died 
in the first half of the secon century. He was a slave 
in his youth to Epaphroditus, one of the guards of Nero. 
His master striking him hard and. heavily on his leg 
one day, he said to his master, ''You will break my leg," 
which did take place; and he said, "Did I not tell you 
that you would break my leg?" The extreme insensi- 
bility to pain was a fundamental principle in his phil- 
osophy. He became a freedman, but neither the time 
nor the cause of his freedom is known to history. His 
principal labors were no doubt from A. D. 102 to A. D. 
109. He never composed any of his wisdom in writing, 
but Irene, a Greek philosopher, born in Nicomedia in Bi- 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 205 

thynia (the country where Peter performed his principal 
labors), about A. D. 100, being a friend of Epictetus 
and his philosophy, after he retired to Athens, pubHshed 
a book of lectures of Epictetus and wrote many other 
books, and procured such renown that he was denom- 
inated as ''the Zenophon." His younger life was spent 
in the provinces of the Roman Empire, while Trajan 
and Adrian were emperors. Under them he attained to 
the office of consulship. 

It is from Adrian, who records the discourses of Epic- 
tetus, that we obtain the extract which alludes to our 
subject, where he says to Lucius Gillius: "I neither 
composed discourses of Epictetus in such a manner as 
things of this nature are commonly composed, nor did 
I myself produce them to the public view any more 
than I composed them ; but whatever sentiments I heard 
from his own mouth, the very same I endeavored to set 
down in the very same words as far as possible, and 
preserve as memoirs of my own use, for his manner of 
thinking and freedom of speech. These discourses are 
such as one person would naturally deliver from his own 
thoughts extempore to another, not such as he would 
prepare to be read by numbers afterwards." 

There were two passages in these discourses that 
learned men claim to relate to the Christians. In the 
first Epictetus blames those who assume the profession 
of philosophy or any other character without acting up 
to it. "Why," says he, "do you call yourself a Stoic? 
Why do you deceive the multitude? Why do you pre- 
tend to be a Greek when you are a Jew? Do you not 
perceive upon what terms a man is called a Jew, an 
Assyrian, an Egyptian? When we see a man inconsist- 
ent to his principles, we say he is not a Jew, but only 
pretends to be so. But when he has the temper of a 



2o6 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

man baptized and professed, then he is indeed and is 
called a Jew; even so some are counterfeited Jews in 
name, but in reality something else." In another place, 
in speaking of intrepidity or fearlessness, and particu- 
larly with regard to a tyrant surrounded by his guards 
and officers, he says: "Is it possible that a man may 
arrive at this temper and become indifferent to those 
things from madness or from habit, as the GaHleans, 
and yet that no one should be able to know by reason 
and demonstration that God made all things in the 
world? " It is further stated by the translator that Epic- 
tetus probably means, not any remaining disciples of 
Judas of Galilee, but the Christians, whom Julius after- 
wards affected to call Galileans. It helps to conform to 
this opinion that N. N. Antoninus (1-2, Sect. 3) mentions 
them by their proper name, ''Christians,'* as suffering 
death out of mere obstinacy. Epictetus and Antoninus 
were too exact judges of human nature not to know that 
ignominy, tortures, and death are not merely on their 
own account objects of choice, nor could the record of 
any time or nation furnish them with an example of 
multitudes of persons, of all ranks and both sexes, of all 
ages and nattu-al disposition, in distant countries and 
successive periods, resigning whatever is most valuable 
and dear to the hearts of men from a principle of ob- 
stinacy or the mere force of habit, not to say that habit 
could not have any influence on their first sufferers. 

Thus in another extract that is worthy of notice; and 
the genuineness of the same has never been disputed so 
far as the writer has observed. To appreciate its value, 
it ought to be particularly noticed that the Greeks and 
Romans were accustomed to call the Christians Jews 
because Jesus Christ was a Jew, His Apostles vrere all 
Jews, and His religion began in Judea among the Jews. 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 207 

Many in those days regarded the gospel as a new system 
of Judaism, and its advocates as a new sect of Jews, 
and therefore so nicknamed them. Epictetus, a Stoic 
philosopher, not very well acquainted with the gospel 
and the peculiar views of the Christians, but knowing 
that they made a profession of faith and were baptized 
and had a temper and manner peculiar to themselves, 
uses them to point out and illustrate his morals and to 
further adorn his argument in favor of consistency. His 
words are in this view worth a volume: "But v/hen he 
has the temper of a man who is a believer of the Christian 
rehgion, then he is indeed and is called a Jev/." 

There is no doubt but what the Christians flour- 
ished, at the time when this philosopher referred to them, 
in great numbers throughout the country where he was, 
and that this time was about A. D. 109. This testi- 
mony is valuable for the reason that it adds to the other 
testimony given by the enemies of Jesus and His re- 
ligion and the followers; and the further fact that his 
statements date back to a very early period, which could 
not have been more than ten or twelve years after the 
death of St. John, and that there were many living at 
that time who were living and undoubtedly associated 
with the people of St. John's time, and must have known, 
nearly all the Apostles and were well acquainted with 
almost all their labors and works to bring the teachings 
of the blessed Lord to the world of mankind. This testi- 
mony should go a great way to convince you that Chris- 
tianity is not a fable, but emanated from God Himself, 
and if adhered to in accordance with its teachings, it 
will bring eternal life to all its believers. 



2o8 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

CHAPTER XV. 

Titus. 

This subject's full name was Titus Aurelius Fuldius 
Beonius Hertonimes Pius, and he was born in the reign 
of Domitian, in the year A. D. 86. He succeeded Adrian 
on the throne the loth day of July in the year A. D. 138, 
and died about the 7th day of March, A. D. 161, in the 
twenty- third year of his reign. He has been very favor- 
ably spoken of and commended by many, and indeed 
seems to have been a man of as fair character as any of 
the Roman rulers, and you need not except the most 
admired; and although he was about seventy years of 
age at the time of his death, he was very much lamented, 
as much so as if he had died in the prime of his life. 
When Xiphilinus made the epitome of the history of 
Cassius, the seventeenth book of that work, which con- 
tains the reign of this emperor, was wanting, there being 
only a small portion of its beginning. Having given a 
short account of that, Xiphilinus proceeds : '' It is agreed 
by all that Antoninus was a good and mild prince, who 
was not oppressive either to any of his subjects nor to 
the Christians, whom he protected and favored, as is 
shown by Eusebius PamphiH." So writes Xiphilinus. 
We are therefore led directly to the ecclesiastical history 
of Eusebius, in which is the earliest account that we can 
expect to find of Antoninus 's regard for the Christians. 
He was not reckoned among the persecuting emper- 
ors; nevertheless the Christians were persecuted in his 
time, in all probability contrary to his wishes or knowl- 
edge, for it is shown that many of the leaders of the 



MORTALS AND IMMORTAUTY. 209 

Christian religion and their friends took occasion to pre- 
sent to him quite a number of Apologies for the Chris- 
tians, and that Justin's first Apology was addressed to 
him is believed and acknowledged by historians. It is 
inscribed in his memoirs or writings: "To the emperor 
Titus -^Hus Hadrianus Antoninus the Pious, and his son 
Verissimus, and Lucius, and the Senate, and all of the peo- 
ple of Rome, in behalf of men gathered out of all nations 
who were unjustly hated and ill-treated, I, Justin, son 
of Prescus, son of Bocchius, one of them of the city of 
Flavia Neapolis in that part of Syria which is called 
Palestine, do make this address and suppHcation." Not 
to take notice of any other passages, the same Apology 
concludes in this manner: "If what has now been of- 
fered be material, pay a suitable regard to it; but if all 
this be of no moment, let it be slighted as trifling, but 
do not preach as enemies and appoint death for men 
who are guilty of no crime. And we foretell unto you 
that ye will not escape the future judgment of God if 
ye persist in this injustice." This plainly shows to 
you that the Christians were throughout all the country 
persecuted unto death. 

Eusebius, having given an account of Justin's Apol- 
ogy and quoting the beginning of it, goes on: "And 
the same emperor, having been applied to by others of 
the brethren in Asia, complaining of the many injuries 
and injustices that they had received and suffered from 
the people ot the country wherein they resided, sent an 
edict to the common council of Asia, which was to this 
purpose: 'The Emperor to the States of Asia, sending 
greetings I am well satisfied that the gods will not 
suffer such men to be counselled, for undoubtedly they 
are more concerned to punish those who refused to wor- 
ship them than you are, but you only conform to those 



2IO MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

men in their sentiments and make them more obstinate 
by caUing them impious; it only makes them the more 
vexed and a desire to persist in their course, for they 
are not so desirous to Hve as to be persecuted and suffer 
death for their God. Hence they come off victorious, 
freely laying down their lives rather than do what you 
demand of them. As for earthquakes of the former or 
the present times, it may not be improper to advise you 
to compare yourselves with them and your sentiments 
with theirs, for when such things happen you are de- 
jected, but they are full of confidence in God, and you, 
in the ignorance you are in, neglect the other gods and 
their rites and the worship of the immortals likewise, 
and the Christians who worship Him you banish and 
persecute to death. Before our time many governors of 
provinces wrote to our deified father about these men, 
to whom he wrote that they* should not be molested 
unless they did things contrary to the welfare of the 
Roman government. Many have also informed the world 
about the same men, to whom I returned an answer 
agreeable to the rescript of my father [Adrian]. If there- 
fore any person will still accuse any of those men as 
such [Christians], let the accused be acquitted, though 
he appear to be such a one [Christian], and let the ac- 
cuser, be punished.' Set up at Ephesus in the common 
assembly of Asia." And that these things were so done, 
so Eusebius has attested, by Mehto, bishop of Sardis, 
in his excellent Apology, published about that time, 
which he made for our religion to the emperor Verus. 

Melito's Apology was presented to Marcus Antoninus 
about the year A. D. 177. From that Apology you find 
Eusebius makes a large extract (a part of which is herein 
transcribed, reserving the rest hereafter): **0f all the 
Roman emperors," says Mehto to Marcus, *'Nero and 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 2II 

Domitian only, who are misled by designing men, have 
shown great enmity to our religion. From them have 
proceeded the evil reports concerning us that are re- 
ceived and propagated by the vulgar, which have often 
been checked by our pious ancestors, who by edicts have 
restrained those who have been troublesone to men of 
our religion, among whom is your grandfather Adrian, 
who wrote as to many others, so particularly to Mine- 
cius Fecundanus, proconsul of Asia, and your father 
also, at the same time that you governed all things with 
him, wrote to several cities that they should not give 
us any vexation, and among them to the I^arissians and 
Thessalonians and the Athenians and to all the Greeks, 
and we are persuaded that you, who can not but have a 
like regard for us, are yet of a more human and phil- 
osophical disposition, will grant us all we desire." 

You can see from the authentic statement of Anto- 
ninus Pius that the Christians were a very large commu- 
nity who were gathered out of all nations, and were un- 
justly ill-treated and persecuted, being condemned to 
death by the pagan and polytheistic emperors. However, 
the Christians rather chose than eluded persecution in the 
time of Adrian and Antoninus; and during the time of 
the pubHc calamities that befell the Roman Empire, 
such as earthquakes and other serious disasters, the 
Christians were easily distinguished from all others by 
the confidence that they reposed and had in their God, 
who was the Savior Jesus Christ. This faith in their 
God was so conspicuous and so comforting to them that 
the pusillanimity of the brethren reached the ears of the 
emperors and furnished them with the best reasons to 
abandon all persecution of the Christians; for they were 
the ones (the Christians) who could not be affrighted in 
the tremendous convulsions and agonies of Nature, neither 



212 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

could they be forced from their religion by evil persecu- 
tions, even though they were done unto death. The 
Christians in worshiping one God were, in the judgment 
of the emperors, more pious than they who professed to 
do homage to so many. The governors of many prov- 
inces had written to the different rulers touching their 
cause and persecution, which made it notorious and pub- 
lic to all the posted people during the period of time 
running from the year A. D. 109 to the year A. D. 161. 
It also appears that the rescript issued by Adrian is 
confirmed by his son in his testimony. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Proof by Joskphus and Other Testimony That Jesus 

Christ Established the Christian Religion 

AND That They Worshiped 

Him as a God. 

In looking over the history of the coming of Jesus 
Christ and the establishing of the Christian religion, 
there seems to be no person who ought to have a greater 
knowledge of this fact, who has come down to us in 
history, than Josephus; for the fact that he has a com- 
plete history of the Jews, written by himself, and he was 
born and lived in such close proximity to the time of 
the birth and life of Jesus Christ that a failure on his 
part to set out in his history the many wonderful works 
of the Savior during His ministry and the fact that He 
did leave a religion and followers of it has been a great 
mystery to many people who have attempted to investi- 
gate the Christian religion in profane history, and has had 
a tendency, no doubt, to produce in the minds of many 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 213 

investigators a suspicion and doubt as to the authen- 
ticity of the Scriptures ; but when history is fully written 
up and thoroughly understood in all its phases, many 
things are explainable, so as to remove the great cloud 
hanging over the Christian religion caused by the fact 
that Josephus did not more fully set out in his history 
this people and their religion as well as the great work 
of the I/ord Jesus Christ. 

The historian Josephus was a Jewish priest, who was 
contemporary with the Apostles, having been born in 
the year A. D. 37. From his situation and habits and 
learning he had every opportunity to know all that took 
place at the rise of the Christian religion. Respecting 
the founder of this religion, Josephus deemed it advisable 
for him to be silent in his history. The present copies 
of his work speak very respectfully of Jesus Christ in 
one chapter, and in one other chapter he makes mention 
of Him as being a brother of James, who was so unjustly 
slain by Herod. In the first mention of the Savior he 
gave to Him the character of the Messiah; but, as Jo- 
sephus did not embrace Christianity, and this passage 
is not quoted or referred to until the beginning of the 
fourth century, it is for this and other reasons, which 
will hereinafter be shown, generally counted spurious. 
It is also the manner of Josephus in other parts of his 
history to pass over in silence everything which appears 
to be against his nation, and the further fact that Jo- 
sephus writes this history between A. D. 75 and A. D. 
93; at and prior to that time for about five years the 
Romans were diligently using all their efforts in per- 
secuting the Jews with the torture and at the stake. 
This was done for the express purpose of stamping out, 
as they said, that vile superstition, which was the 
greatest enemy to their government and to mankind. 



214 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

And again the further fact that they associated the Jews 
with those that espoused this superstition and thought 
that the Jewish race was the foundation and head from 
which all this error and crime arose, and in wiping out 
the Jews they would do very much and probably the 
greatest thing possible to get rid of this most menacing 
trouble for their government. The Roman government 
depended upon the perpetuation of their religion in main- 
taining their government, as the rehgion of their govern- 
ment was the very foundation-stone upon which it rested. 
Therefore the overthrowing of their religion would over- 
throw their entire system of government. Thus the Ro- 
mans felt that this new superstition and their followers, 
known as the Christians, could not be permitted to over- 
run their provinces and their country, and they resorted 
to the most cruel and rigid methods to stop its progress 
and to forever obliterate it from their midst. 

It is a fact, and known to all Roman history, that 
when Josephus was taken a prisoner by Titus during the 
war with the Jews, Titus showed, by the attitude which 
he afterwards assumed toward Josephus and the treat- 
ment accorded to him by the Romans, that there was 
no question of doubt whatever but, so far as the Jews 
were concerned, Josephus had acted as a complete traitor, 
or Judas ; for it is related of him that he aided the Roman 
general by giving all the information and directions that 
he could, so that Titus could destroy the city of Jeru- 
salem and overcome the Jews. At all events, after Jo- 
sephus was taken prisoner, he was kept at all times in 
the headquarters of Titus and in his tent, in company 
with Titus all the time during the siege of the city and 
of the war. As soon as hostihty ceased and Titus re- 
turned to Rome, he took his friend Josephus with him, 
and when they arrived at the city of Rome they con- 



MORTALS AND IMMORTAUTY. 215 

ferred many special honors upon Josephus in various 
ways. The Empress of Rome accorded him the priv- 
ilege of residing in her castle until his death, and when 
he died they erected to his memory a fine monument 
and made mention of him in their writings in many 
favorable ways. In conferring further favors upon 
him, when Titus had brought about the cessation of 
all troubles in Judea, thinking that the land owned 
by Josephus in Judea would be of no rental value to 
him on account of him turning traitor to his people, 
and knowing the great hatred they had for him on that 
account, Titus gave him other lands free of taxation in 
the plains. This giving of the land without taxation 
was considered a great favor and very few persons ever 
enjoyed that great privilege under the Roman Empire. 
When Titus returned to Rome, Josephus was taken into 
the ship with Titus and other Roman officers, and great 
honor and respect was conferred upon him during the 
trip to Rome. On their arrival at Rome, Vespasian 
paid Josephus the highest respect and care, and also 
conferred upon him at once the great honor of a Rom- 
an citizen, and gave to him further an annual pension, 
and showed great respect to Josephus up to the end of 
his hfe, without any relaxation in conferring favors up- 
on him. During this time one of the countrymen of 
Josephus, a Jew, raised an army of two thousand men 
and attempted to secure and capture Josephus and take 
him away from the Romans, and when apprehended, he 
made statements charging Josephus with having had se- 
lected and soHcited soldiers and appropriated money that 
he himself had gathered together to destroy the Roman 
Empire ; but these things were not believed by Vespasian, 
and Vespasian commanded that the Jew should die. In 
the investigation relative to Josephus, he declared that 



2i6 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

the statements were wholly false, and Vespasian would 
not or did not believe the Jew's report and regarded it 
as a falsehood, and then ordered the man put to death. 
This man's name was Jonathan. It is shown also that 
Josephus claims that all the efforts on the part of the 
Jewish people made to bring him to justice fur his treach- 
ery against them were caused from nothing but their 
being envious of his good fortune. When these people 
felt that Josephus had been their greatest and worst 
enemy and traitor, and that he had done more to over- 
throw their government and bring misery and destruc- 
tion upon them instead of the tranquillity and happiness 
which they had enjoyed before his treachery, they were 
very desirous of punishing him. These great honors 
upon Josephus were continued until his death by Titus, 
when he became emperor, and also by Domitian when 
he went on the throne. 

We can readily see that Josephus in writing his twen- 
ty books of history of the Jews would not do anything 
to elevate them or to show that they had been innocently 
persecuted and mistreated by the Roman government; 
for this the Roman "government would not permit to go 
out to the world against their failure in doing justice in 
all cases. Then we find that at the same time the Ro- 
man Empire was doing all it could to eradicate from its 
midst and all its provinces the doctrine of Jesus Christ 
and His influence and religion over their people, and in 
so doing were continually apprehending and convicting 
the followers of the Lord Jesus, charging them with the 
crime of adhering to this excessive ignorant superstition, 
as they called it, and worshiping a man called Jesus 
Christ. Taking all the circumstances referred to, also 
the way in which the first reference is made in Josephus 
relative to the Savior and His religion, we can see how 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 217 

it is possible that some religious person, not knowing 
the real cause of Josephus ignoring Jesus Christ and His 
religion, did place in his history that statement which 
has been claimed to have been put therein by other 
hands, where he says (Book 18, chapter 3, page 548): 
** There was about this time, Jesus, a wise man, if it be 
lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonder- 
ful works " However, you will find again, 

in chapter 9, page 913, where Josephus refers to James, 
who was destroyed by Herod, as being the brother of 
Jesus Christ. There is hardly a doubt but that this 
reference can be relied upon as being written by Jo- 
sephus himself, and was originally written at the time 
the history was gotten out and is genuine. 

There is another cause and further fact that exists, 
as being very plausible and reasonable, which would 
cause the writer Josephus to omit the Savior and His 
religion, in that Josephus was a Jewish priest, and being 
learned in all the Christian doctrine of the Jews and its 
teachings and prophecies of the coming of the Savior, 
he no doubt thought that he could not honorably combat 
and refute with any well-urged argument that the life- 
work, doctrine, and miracles of Jesus Christ, as set forth 
by Him and His Apostles, were not true. He therefore 
chose not to mention or to say anything whatever rel- 
ative to the Savior or His teachings. And further, it is 
a fact that during the time mentioned the Roman gov- 
ernment associated the Jews with the Christians, and it 
might be that he felt that he would be endangering the 
lives and happiness of his own countrymen unnecessarily, 
and that by his silence again he might better effect the 
overthrow of the Christian rehgion and do away with 
the doctrine of Jesus Christ and His influence by his si- 
lence than by making mention of it, and if it could be 



2i8 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

done in this way, he would be pleasing the Roman gov^ 
ernment and not throw any hindrance in their way when 
they were spending so much money and time in their 
endeavors to eradicate and remove this great evil from 
their provinces. 

So far as Josephus not knowing about Jesus Christ 
and His followers, who were called Christians, there can 
be no doubt or question; for He was fully conversant 
with all that was done or said, as his history shows 
himself to be fully familiar with all the current events 
during the Savior's Messianic teaching. As has been 
said heretofore, he preferred to pass it by at all events. 
There is another reason that can plausibly and reason- 
ably be urged why Josephus left out of his history this 
wonderful event that took place among his people in 
starting the Christian religion by the Messiah, and that 
is, that the doctrine of the Christian religion was of such 
a formidable power in convincing the people and getting 
them to accept its precepts so readily, and it spread 
with such rapidity and had taken such a wonderful hold 
throughout all that country, that he was staggered in 
his determination when he thought of attempting to 
counteract its influence by his pen in his book in any 
effort that he might make to explain it away, so that he 
resolved, no doubt, in his mind, that it was his best 
judgment to let it be wiped out by the course being 
pursued by the Roman government, which was then at 
that time destroying the adherents of this superstition 
at an awful rate. 

All the accounts which Josephus has given of the 
civil and religious offices of Judea and of the princes 
and rulers who govern the nations and of the different 
locations of all the places are perfectly agreeable to the 
things stated and set out in the Gospels. He gives a 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 219 

good account of John the Baptist, as being beheaded by 
King Herod unjustly; how it was thought that God 
would bring calamities upon King Herod for his cruelty 
unto him. Josephus also records that Herod was fear- 
ful of John the Baptist's influence" among the people; 
for the people were so taken up with his preaching and 
doctrine, and he avowed that they would go with him 
in anything that he might request. He also records the 
reasons for the taking of his life as a splendid testimony of 
John's great goodness and purity, and that his teachings 
were approved of God. 

The history of the Roman government shows that it 
was the law and custom of the government throughout 
its empire to have governors in its several provinces 
which belonged to them ; that it was made a duty under 
the law for all these governors to make a report of all 
matters of state and of all matters of great importance 
to the Emperor and Senate. And it is related by Eu- 
sebius that the crucifixion of our Savior was very greatly 
talked about in Palestine. Pilate informed the Emperor 
of it, and also the great and many miracles that were 
performed by our I^ord; and that Jesus Christ had been 
crucified and that the third day He arose from the dead, 
and very many believed upon Him as a God. This re- 
port of Pilate's, or any other of the governors in accord- 
ance with the Roman law, was not to be made public; 
for such reports were only intended for the information 
of the government. This report of Pilate's was by Au- 
gustus specially forbidden to be published, and the acts 
of the Roman Senate were never published. However, 
these facts have all been attested by Justin Martyr in 
his first Apology, which in the year A. D. 140 was pre- 
sented to the emperor Antoninus Pius and the Senate 
of Rome. Having mentioned the crucifixion of Jesus 



220 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

and some of the things that took place, he adds that 
these things were done, you may know from what took 
place, in the time of Pontius Pilate. TertuUian leaves us 
another very reliable statement about the Savior's cruci- 
fixion and resurrection and His appearance again to His 
disciples, and also His final ascension into the heavens 
in the sight of some of His disciples, who were ordained 
by Him to preach the gospel to every creature through- 
out the world. Of all these things referring to Jesus 
Christ, Pilate, in his conscience being a Christian, sent 
an account to Tiberius, who was then emperor. 

During the reign of Domitian (begun in the year 8i 
and terminated in the year 96) under whom the second 
persecution took place, Domitian made inquiry after the 
posterity of David, and two men were brought before 
him of that family at that time and were charged with 
being near kindred of Jesus Christ and were the grand- 
sons of Jude, who was called his brother according to the 
flesh; they, being accused, were brought before Domi- 
tianus Caesar; for he was afraid of the coming of the 
Christ as well as Herod. These men. Gibbon says, con- 
fessed they were of royal origin and that they were 
relatives of the Messiah; but they stated they had no 
temporal faith, but their faith or view in the kingdom 
of Jesus Christ, that they devoutly expected at that 
time, were purely of a spiritual and angelic nature. When 
they was examined, they showed their hands, that they 
were hardened with labor, and proclaimed that they got 
all their substance from the cultivation of a farm near 
Caba of about twenty-four acres, which was worth about 
three hundred pounds. So the grandsons of St. Jude 
were dismissed with compassion and contempt. 

When we carefully examine the history of Josephus 
and apply his writings to a man of his understanding, 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 22 1 

possessing all faith in the Jewish religion, being particu- 
larly conversant with all the prophetic statements, we 
see him refer to prophetic statements showing that it 
was foretold by prophets that Jerusalem was to be de- 
stroyed, not designating who they were that- gave out 
this information to his people. Again, we find him en- 
tering a complaint against the Jews for not giving heed 
to those warnings, saying that if they had, the evils 
which were foretold would not have come to them. This 
fact shows positively that Josephus had faith in the 
prophetic statements contained in the Jewish Bible. 

Josephus also relates a prophetic statement made by 
the prophet Daniel, foretelling and recording the vision 
that he saw while in the plains of Susa, which correctly 
foretold of the Jews losing their political government to 
the Roman Empire. He, referring to this prophecy, re- 
marks how God had honored Daniel, in bringing to pass 
all of his prophetic statements. He follows up this by 
saying that so doing settled the question, which some 
maintain, that the worlds were here by chance and so 
regulated, instead of being controlled in all ways by an 
intelligent divine Power, Who directed all things in the 
planetary systems in accordance with His omnipotent will. 

He speaks of the prophecy of Isaiah in regard to the 
building of a temple in Egypt which was to be like unto 
the one at Jerusalem. He also records the tyrants sub- 
orning and using men as prophets to deceive the people, 
and says they represented to the Jews that if they would 
go up to the top of the temple, it would there be revealed 
to them how they could get away from and avoid the 
evils they were expecting to overtake them, but says 
this was only done that they could the more easily be 
destroyed. 



222 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

He further states in his history that there were many 
false prophets in those days who deceived the people. 
The question arises and looms up before us, for our con- 
sideration, How could Josephus refer to the foregoing 
minor prophetic statements and leave out of his history 
of his people all the prophetic statements that were re- 
corded in his Bible that foretold the coming of the Mes- 
siah and Redeemer of the world? The line of the Mes- 
sianic prophecies was considered by the Jews as being 
the all-absorbing question, pertaining to the spiritual 
and temporal welfare of the Jewish race. They had 
given their money and time, and worshiped their God 
in the most faithful manner, looking forward to the con- 
summation of these prophecies, which so accurately and 
minutely foretold the coming of their Redeemer. 

There can be no other solution or reason given for 
Ms not referring to these prophecies than that it was 
impossible for him to do so without following them up, 
without giving the results that had followed. This he 
could not do, unless he went into the claims made 'by 
Jesus Christ, and what He did, and what followed His 
teachings. This he could do only at the sacrifice of the 
much-enjoyed friendship and privileges (and probably his 
life) accorded to him by the Roman government, which 
at that time was spending much time and money in 
trying to eradicate Jesus Christ's teachings from the 
government and provinces. 

Viewing the foregoing ^situation in a dispassionate 
manner, with the attitude that is shown by the historian 
Josephus, it certainly shows the omission of the proph- 
ecies to be done with a designing purpose, as well as all 
the teachings pertaining to the establishment of the 
Christian religion among men. The situation here shown 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 223 

makes it unnecessary to attempt to add further proof to 
convince fair-minded persons of their truthfulness. 



CHAPTER XVII. 
The Talmud. 

This is the collective name of the Mishnah and the 
Gemara, which contains the oral law and other tradi- 
tions of the Jews; in a limited sense, the term is used 
of the Gemara alone. The Mishnah constitutes the ear- 
lier texts of the Talmud, which the Gemara elucidates, 
not so much in the manner of a running commentary 
as by furnishing additional textual paragraphs with ex- 
planatory remarks given in the name of the renowned 
scholars. The Mishnah is the text and the Gemara the 
comment. Both combined are what the Jews call the 
Talmud. Originally the Talmud completed by the Jews 
of Judea was called the Jerusalem Talmud, and the one 
gotten up by the Jews of Babylon was called the Baby- 
lonian Talmud. The first was commenced not earlier 
than A. D. 150 and the last before A. D. 450. Since 
the getting out of the original Talmud, as stated 
above, there have been many other editions brought 
out by the different Jews in different countries. In 
some of the Talmuds, one of which is the one gotten 
out by the Russian Jews, including both the Jerusalem 
and Babylonian Talmud, they have seen fit to eliminate 
from both of them the name of Jesus Christ or any al- 
lusion to Him or His relatives or His religion in any 
manner whatever, so that it may not be discerned by 
the reader that there is any reference made in any way. 
Why they have dropped out all the original references 



224 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

to Him and His people, Apostles, and religion is not 
known positively. It may have been to still persist in 
their effort of ignoring Him and His doctrine before the 
world so that it would be lost sight of, and it may be 
that they found they had made a mistake in their ref- 
erence to them in their original Talmud in the manner in 
which they did, thinking that referring to Him in such 
a discreditable manner would do them more harm than 
good. Authorities placed against authorities and deci- 
sions in the form of dialogues are frequent. 

There are two Gemaras: the Palestine or Jerusalem 
Gemara and the Babylonian of Babylon. The former 
contains comments on thirty-nine and the latter thirty- 
six treatises of the Mishnah. It cites the Jewish religion 
for about six centuries, beginning before the time of the 
Maccabees. The compiler of the Mishnah is Rabbi Je- 
hudah Hakkadosh, or The Holy, upon whom the highest 
commendations are bestowed by Maimonides, as emi- 
nent for humanity, temperance, and every branch of 
purity, as also for learning and eloquence, and likewise 
for his riches, which are magnified by him and other 
Jewish writers beyond all reasonable bounds of probabil- 
ity. The Mishnah proper was composed about A. D, 
150, and the other writings after that up to about 450 
A. D. But some think that the compilation took place 
about one hundred and fifty years after the destruction 
of Jerusalem, which, if true, would make it A. D. 220. 

In the tract concerning the fasts are these words: 
"Five heavy afflictions have befallen our ancestors on the 
seventeenth day of the month of Tammuz [June] and as 
many on the ninth day of the month of Ab [July]; for 
on the seventeenth day of Tammuz [June] the 'tables of 
the law were broken, and perpetual sacrifice ceased; the 
walls of the city were broken open; the law was burnt 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 225 

by Apostinus, and an idol was set up in the temple. 
On the ninth day of the month Ab, God determined con- 
cerning our fathers that they should not enter into the 
promised land; the first temple and second temple were 
desolated; the city Bether was taken; the Holy City 
was destroyed, for which reason, as soon as the month 
Ab begins, rejoicings are abated. When Rabbi Meir 
died, there was none left to instruct men in wise para- 
bles. When Simeon, son of Gamaliel, died, there came 
locusts; and calamities were increased. When Rabbi 
Akiba died, the glory of the law vanished away. Upon 
the death of Gamaliel, the aged, the honor of the law van- 
ished, and there as an end to purity and sanctity. 
When Rabbi Ishmael, son of Babi, died, the splendor of 
the priesthood was tarnished. When Rabbi Juda died, 
there was no more any modesty or fear of transgression. 
Rabbi Penchas, son of Ishmael, it was said, when the 
temple was destroyed, all men were covered with shame, 
both wise men and nobles, and all now cover their heads; 
the beautiful are reduced to poverty and the violent and 
slanderous prevail, nor is there any to explain the law, 
nor are there any to ask and inquire. What then shall 
we do? Let us trust in our Heavenly Father." 

Rabbi EHezer, surnamed The Great, says: ''From 
the time the temple was destroyed the scribes like the 
sextons, and the sextons like the vulgar, and the vulgar 
are continually degenerating from bad to worse; nor are 
there any who ask and inquire. What then shall we do? 
Let us trust in our Heavenly Father. A short time be- 
fore the coming of the Messiah impudence will be in- 
creased and great will be the price of provisions. The 
supreme empire of the world will be overwhelmed with 
bad opinions, nor will there be room for any to correct 
them. Synagogues will be turned into brothel-houses. 



226 MORTALvS AND IMIMORTAUTY. 

and the whole land of Judah will be laid waste. Ex- 
cellent men will wander from town to town and will 
experience no offices of humanity. The wisdom of the 
masters will be slighted and all who strive to avoid 
transgressions will be condemned, and great will be the 
dearth of truth. Young' men will cover the faces of the 
aged with shame, and the aged will rise before the young. 
The son will dishonor the father, and the daughter will 
rise up against the mother, and the daughter-in-law 
against the mother-in-law, and a man's enemies will be 
they of his own household; in a word, that age will 
give a canine appearance; nor will the son reverence 
the father. What then shall we do? Let us trust in 
our Heavenly Father. May the coming of Elias be has- 
tened and may the eternal God graciously vouchsafe that 
we may be preserved to that time." It would seem to 
the writer that the foregoing paragraph refers to the 
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and the decay of 
the Jewish leligion and the rise of Jesus Christ's king- 
dom, and that we can not do anything else in that day 
but apply ourselves to our Heavenly Father for His 
mercy; in fact, this was when the Messiah came. 

This next paragraph is taken from the Talmud and 
no doubt relates to our Lord's nativity: ''Upon a cer- 
tain day, when several masters were sitting at the gate 
of the city, two boys passed by before them, one of whom 
covered his head, the other had his head uncovered. 
Concerning him who, contrary to all the rules of mod- 
esty, had boldly passed by with his head uncovered, 
Eliezer said he believed he was spurious; Joshua said 
he believed he was the son of a woman set apart; but 
Rabbi Akiba said he was both. The others said to Akiba, 
*Why do you differ from the rest of your brethren?* He 
answered that he could prove the truth of what he said. 



MORTALS AND DIMORTALTTY. 227 

Accordingly he went to the mother of the boy, whom 
he saw sitting in the market and selHng herbs. He then 
said to her, * My daughter, answer me a question, which 
I am going to put to you, and I assure you a portion of 
happiness in the world to come.' She answered, 'Con- 
firm what you say with an oath.' Akiba then swore 
with his lips, but at the same time absolved himself in 
his own mind. Then he said to her, ' Tell me the origin 
of your son,' which she did. When he returned to his 
colleagues and told them of the discovery he had made, 
they said, 'Great is Akiba, who hath corrected the 
rest of the masters.'" This, no doubt, never actually 
took place, and might be considered only fiction, and 
when he wrote it, the subject was put in such language 
and manner as to bring the ones that were meant into 
disrepute. The language used is such that any person 
would know whom the writer was referring to when he 
penned the dialogue as set out, and is referred to here 
for the express purpose of letting the reader know that 
all the Jewish rabbins knew that our I/ord and Savior 
did establish the Christian religion. 

In reference to the child Jesus being taken down into 
Egypt, it is thus stated by those who wrote this v/ork. 
At the same time the reader will see that the statement 
is put in such a venomous way that there is no fairness 
in any of their writings when they are concerned about 
the Savior or His religion, for their whole aim from be- 
ginning to end was to bring the whole matter into dis- 
repute. (Bab. Sanhedr., fol. 107, a.) When Jannay the 
king slew the rabbins, our Joshua Ben Perocheah and Jesus 
went away into Alexandria in Egypt, Simeon Ben Stada 
sent thither, speaking thus: ''From me, Jerusalem, the 
Holy City, to thee, O Alexandria in Egypt: My sister's 
health. 'My husband dwell with thee; while I in the 



228 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

meantime sit alone." Therefore he arose up and went, 
and a Httle after he brought forth four hundred trum- 
peters and anathematized (Jesus), and a Httle before 
that Ehzeus turned away Gehazi with both his hands, 
and (Scabb., fol. 104, 2) did not Ben Stada bring en- 
chantments out of Egypt in the cutting which was in 
his flesh? They wounded our Jesus with their reproaches 
under Ben Stada. 

There is also a legend among the Jews that they had 
and kept divining letters in the temple at Jerusalem, 
and that the Savior, not being allowed to take them 
out, cut them in His flesh, and then He was enabled 
through them to perform His miracles. This you will 
of course know is very absurd and unreasonable, yet it 
shows that the Jews recognized the Savior's power to 
perform the miracles that He did perform, and that He 
was with them and performed miracles. Had the Egyp- 
tians been possessed of any art or magical device by 
which they could have deceived the people in any way, 
or could have actually healed the sick, made the lame 
to walk, the blind to see, and the paralytic to become 
restored whole, or pretended in any way to have raised 
the dead, there is no question but what the Roman Em- 
pire which had overrun that whole country would have 
made mention of these things. The Athenian govern- 
ment would have made a record of those remarkable 
instances, for they were perfectly familiar with the Egyp- 
tian people and their government prior to and during 
the time that the Lord Jesus Christ walked among men. 
These things would have been so well known by all the 
inhabitants of Palestine and the other countries where 
the influence of the Savior was so most wonderfully felt 
and believed, that they could have had no such an effect 
upon the inhabitants, and everything that He would have 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 229 

attempted to do would have been contemptuously ig- 
nored by all. In the Gemara is a tradition that Rabbi 
Eliezer says to the wise men: ''Did not the Son of 
Stada bring magical arts out of Egypt in cutting in his 
flesh?" The gloss says: ''The reason of that was that 
he could not bring them away in writing because the 
priests diligently searched all at their going away; that 
they might not carry out magical arts to teach them 
to men dwelling in other countries." This statement 
about the Savior carrying out of Egypt magical arts by 
cutting them on his flesh so as to remember them is 
another unreasonable statement, and no doubt the writer 
of these things in the Talmud got what little information 
he possessed from some of the earher Jewish writers 
against the Christian religion. The facts are: the Sa- 
vior never Uved in Egypt except for a short time when 
a small child; then He returned to Nazareth and lived 
there the balance of His life, working with His fleshly 
father at the carpenter's trade. It is a well-known fact 
that all history shows that in every writing of every 
philosopher or theologian for or against Jesus Christ and 
His rehgion they have always referred to Him as "the 
Nazarene," and had He not been reared, raised, and re- 
ceved what little education He could at Nazareth until 
He attained to man's estate, He never would or could 
have been called "the Nazarene," but would have been 
called, more likely, "the Egyptian"; and the very most 
vitrioHc enemies also have always called Him in derision 
"the Carpenter of Nazareth." 

In an allusion to Matthew, James, John, and Judas, 
the paucity of Christ's disciples is sneered at by the 
rabbins in the Babylonian Talmud. These rabbins 
taught that there were five disciples of Jesus : Matthai, 



230 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

Nakai, Nezer, Bani, and Toba. When Matthai was 
brought forth to be condemned to death, he said to his 
judges: "Shall Matthai be slain? But it is written, 
When shall I come (Matai) and appear before God?'* 
(Ps. 13:2.) But they answered: "Yes, Matthai shall be 
stoned ; for it is written. When (Matai) shall he die and 
his name perish?" (Ps. 41.) When Naki was brought 
out, he said: "Shall Naki be stoned? But it is writ- 
ten, Thou shalt not kill the innocent (Naki) and the 
just." (Ex. 13:2.) But they said: "Yes, Matthai 
shall be stoned; for it is written in the secret places, 
doth he murder the innocent (Naki)." (Ps. 10:8.) When 
they brought forth Nezer, he said to them: "Shall Ne- 
zer be slain? But it is written, A branch (Nezer) shall 
grow out of his roots." (Isa. ii:i.) But they answered: 
"Yes, Nezer shall be stoned; for it is written. Thou art 
cast out of thy grave as an abominable branch." (Isa. 
14:19.) When they brought out Bani, he said: "And 
shall Bani be stoned? But it is written, Israel js my son 
(Bani), even my firstborn." (Ex. 4:22.) "For it is 
written, Behold, I will slay thy son (Bincka), thy first- 
born." (Ex. 4:23.) When they brought out Toba, he 
said to them: "And shall Toba be slain? It is written, 
A psalm to praise (I^ethoda)." (Ps. 100.) But they an- 
swered: "Yes, Toba shall be slain; for it is written, 
Whoso off ere th praise (Toba) glorifieth me." 

Some of the writers think that James is alluded to, 
but others insist that he was, and state that the reason 
only five are alluded to is that five did more labor than 
all the others, and that they might have been the only 
known, or best known, among the Jews at that time 
and place. Rabbi Akiba and Rabbi Eliezer are talking 
together. Eliezer says: "O Akiba, you have forgotten 
something. As I was walking in the high street of Zep- 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 231 

poris I met one of the disciples of Jesus of Nazareth 
whose name is James, a man of the town of Shecania. 
He said to me, *In your law it is written, Thou shalt 
not bring the hire of the harlot.' (Deut. 23:18.) I did 
not make him any answer, but he added and said to me : 
'Jesus of Nazareth taught me the meaning of ''She 
gathered it of the hire of the harlot." (Micah 1:7.) 
"From an impure place they came, and to an impure 
place they shall return.'" Which interpretation," says 
Eliezer, "did not displease me." 

The death of the Messiah is malevolently misrepre- 
sented in the following words: "These things are de- 
livered in Sanhedrim (chapter 6, Hal. 4) of one that is 
guilty of stoning. If there be no defence found for him,, 
they led him out to be stoned and a crier went before 
him, saying aloud thus: *N. N. comes out to be stoned 
because he has done so and so.' The witnesses against 
him are N. and N., who say, 'Who can bring anything 
in his defence, let him come forth and produce it.'" 
This is set forth in the Gemara of Babylon. The tra- 
dition is that on the evening of the Passover Jesus was 
hanged, and that a crier went before him for forty days, 
making the proclamation as herein set out: "This man 
comes forth to be stoned because he has dealt in sor- 
ceries and persuaded and seduced Israel. Wherefore 
whoever knows of any defence for him, let him come 
forth and produce it." And no defence was found or 
could be produced. Therefore they hanged Him on the 
evening of the Passover. Uls said his case seemed not 
to admit of any defence, since he was a seducer, and 
of such God hath said: "Thou shalt not spare him nor 
conceal him." (Deut. 13.) 

The Mishnah, in explaining Deuteronomy 13 and 
showing who is the seducer there spoken of, says: "Of 



232 MORTALvS AND IMMORTALITY. 

all that are judged to die, to none of them are snares to 
be laid, excepting a seducer; for if he had attempted 
to and they bear witness against him, he is to be stoned." 
And upon this it is said in the Gemara: "Against none 
are snares to be laid except against a seducer ot the 
people." This means one who should seduce the people 
into idolatry ; and that is done after this manner : They 
light a candle in a closet or in a room and place wit- 
nesses in another room, so that they may see him and 
hear his voice, but he does not see them. There he 
whom some time before he had endeavored to seduce, 
being with him, says to him, ''Repeat to me now in 
private what you before said to me." If he then re- 
peats it, the other says to him, ''How can we leave our 
God who is in the heavens and serve idols?" If he then 
owns his fault and repents, all is well. But if he says, 
"This is our duty and so we ought to do," the witnesses 
who were in the outer room carry him to the house of 
judgment and have him stoned. So they did to the Son 
of Stada in Lud, and hanged him on the evening of the 
Passover. Rabbi Chasda said: "The Son of Stada is 
the son of Pendira. His mother was Stada. She was 
Mary the plaiter of women's hair; as we say in Pomp- 
dita, she departed from her husband." In the gloss it 
was said she was so called because she transgressed the 
laws of chastity. The allusion to Mary under the pro- 
fession of a plaiter of hair is evidently to traduce her 
character. 

In the things that are found herein and set forth out 
of the Mishnah and Taltnud we find the enemies of the 
Savior and His religion confirming and showing the par- 
ticular circumstances of the nativity of the Lord Jesus 
Christ and, in their manner, showing His flight into 



I\IORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 233 

Tigypt, and further making allusions to and admitting 
He claimed to have performed miracles, and also very 
fully recognizing four or five of His principal Apostles, 
and fully setting forth, in their way, the manner and 
vile condition under which the Lord Jesus went to His 
death and the unlawful method they resorted to in order 
that they might crucify Him. The further fact is shown 
that they were against Him and His religion by the 
manner of their most bitterly assailing Him and His 
mother and family and His religion that He established; 
and that their poucy of fighting the Christian religion 
was to let it alone as much as possible, but if it was 
spoken of, to do so in a very slighting and derisive manner. 

This showing in the Gemara and the Talmuds also 
confirms and fully establishes the fact that Josephus, 
being a Jewish rabbi, well knew how the rabbins were 
confounded relative to the Savior's appearance in the 
world, and doing the wonderful things which He did do, 
and teaching the most complete spiritual doctrine that 
the world ever knew; and yet, notwithstanding that 
fact, that they took the course of rejecting Him as their 
long-promised and cherished Messiah; and therefore in 
doing so they were compelled, as they thought, to treat 
Him in the most vile manner and as a criminal only 
worthy of death. No doubt this was one of the prompt- 
ings that caused Josephus to so utterly refuse to men- 
tion in His history the Lord Jesus Christ and His great 
works any more than He did; for, as has been said, he, 
being a priest, was certainly conversant with all the 
Jewish laws. 

In all the Talmuds the name of Jesus occurs some 
twenty different times, and was known and read by the 
historians and acknowledged down to the fore part of 



234 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

the seventeenth century, and has been related by- 
different writers; but all references to the Savior in 
the Talmud are very easily and readily discerned by the 
reader or investigator by the manner of the statement 
in reference to Him; all of them are uttered with the 
most intense hatred shown toward Him, and they are 
almost always put in a disguised form. The Christians 
are nearly always referred to as being followers of Baalim, 
sometimes as Gentiles and Nazarenes. Jesus is referred 
to, as you have seen above, by many names, and again 
by the name of "that man," and again as "he whom 
we may not name" and "the fool." And they used 
language so that it would read in this manner: "May 
his memory ever be destroyed and his name be obliter- 
ated out of the Talmud." They charge Him with being 
a student, scholar, and follower of Joshua Ben Perocheah 
(who lived a century before), claiming that He accom- 
panied him into Egypt, in which manner He learned 
this magic which they derisively claimed. They charge 
Him as being a seducer of the people, and claim that He 
was first stoned and then hanged as a blasphemer after 
forty days' waiting for someone to come forward who 
would speak in His favor. There is a work called the 
Talmud, which much of this is in, and it is a late and 
despicable compilation, put together out of fragments 
and legends, and is not recognized with any degree of 
respectability by the Jews themselves. 

The fact that Jesus Christ is mentioned at all by the 
Jews in their Talmud is sufficient to fully establish the 
fact that Jesus Christ did come and set Himself up as 
a teacher to instruct mankind how to gain eternal life; 
for there is one thing certain: had there never been 
such a man as Jesus Christ, the Jews would not have 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 235 

admitted it, when (as they thought) He and His doctrine 
would be the means of overthrowing their cherished 
Christian faith. At the time the first Talmud was writ- 
ten they no doubt had much history and evidence of 
what the Savior did, and had He been a wicked impostor, 
they would have shown it without any question of doubt. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

Pliny's Letter to Trajan. 

"It is a rule, sir, which I invariably observe, to refer 
myself to you in all my doubts ; for who is more capable 
of removing my scruples, or informing my ignorance? 
Having never been present at any trials concerning those 
who profess Christianity, I am unacquainted not only 
with the nature of their crimes, or the measure of their 
punishment, but how far it is proper to enter into an 
examination concerning them. Whether, therefore, any 
difference is usually made with respect to the ages of 
the guilty, or no distinction is to be observed between 
the young and the adult; whether repentance entitles 
them to a pardon, or, if a man has been once a Christian, 
it avails nothing to desist from his error; whether the 
very profession of Christianity, unattended with any 
criminal act, or only the crimes themselves inherent in 
the profession are punishable; in all these points I am 
greatly doubtful. In the meanwhile the method I have 
observed towards those who have been brought before 
me as Christians is this: I interrogated them whether 
they were Christians; if they confessed, I repeated the 



236 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

question twice again, adding threats at the same time; 
when, if they still persevered, I ordered them to be im- 
mediately punished; for I was persuaded, whatever the 
nature of their opinions might be, a contumacious and 
inflexible obstinacy certainly deserved correction. There 
were others also brought before me possessed with the 
same infatuation, but, being 'citizens of Rome,' I di- 
rected them to be carried thither. But this crime spread- 
ing (as is usually the case) while it was actually under 
prosecution, several instances of the same nature occurred. 
''An information was presented to me without any 
name subscribed, containing a charge against several 
persons, who upon examination denied they were Chris- 
tians, or had ever been so. They repeated after me an 
invocation to the gods and offered religious rites with 
wine and frankincense before your statue (which for the 
purpose I had ordered to be brought together with those 
of the gods), and even reviled the name of Christ; where- 
as there is no forcing, it is said, those who are really 
Christians into a compliance with any of these articles: 
I thought proper therefore to discharge them. Some 
among those who were accused by a witness in person 
at first confessed themselves Christians, but immediately 
after denied it; whilst the rest owned indeed that they 
had been of that number formerly, but had now (some 
over three, others more, and a few above twenty years 
ago) forsaken that error. They all worshiped your statue 
and the images of the gods, throwing out imprecations 
at the same time against the name of Christ. They af- 
firmed the whole of their guilt or their error was, that 
they met on a certain stated day before it was light,- 
and addressed themselves in a form of prayer to Christ, 
as to some god, binding themselves by a solemn oath, 
not for the purpose of any wicked design, but never to 



IMORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 237 

commit any fraud, theft, or adultery, never to falsify 
their word, nor deny a trust when they should be called 
upon to deliver it up; after which it was their custom 
to separate, and then re-assemble, to eat in common a 
harmless meal. From this custom, however, they de- 
sisted after the pubHcation of my edict, by which, ac- 
cording to your orders, I forbade the meeting of any 
assembHes. After receiving this account, I judged it so 
much the more necessary to endeavor to extort the real 
truth, by putting two female slaves to the torture, who 
were said to administer in their religious functions: but 
I could discover nothing more than an absurd and ex- 
cessive superstition. 

"I thought proper therefore to adjourn all further 
proceedings in this affair, in order to consult with you. 
For it appears to be a matter highly deserving your con- 
sideration; more especially as great numbers must be 
involved in the danger of these prosecutions, this inquiry 
having already extended, and being still likely to extend, 
to persons of all ranks and ages and even of both sexes. 
For this contagious superstition is not confined to the 
cities only, but has spread its infection among the coun- 
try villages. Nevertheless, it still seems possible to rem- 
edy this evil and restrain its progress. The temples, at 
least, which were once almost deserted, begin now to 
be frequented; and the sacred solemnities, after a long 
intermission, are again revived; while there is a general 
demand for the victims, which for some time past have 
met with but few purchasers. From hence it is easy 
to imagine what numbers might be reclaimed from this 
error if a pardon were granted to those who shall repent." 
Trajan's I^ETTER to Puny. 

"The method you have pursued, my dear Pliny, 
in the proceedings against those Christians which were: 



238 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY, 

brought before you, is extremely proper; as it is not 
possible to lay down any fixed plan by which to act 
in all cases of this nature. But I would not have you 
officiously enter into any inquiries concerning them. If 
indeed they should be brought before you, and the crime 
is proved, they must be punished, with the restriction, 
however, that where the party denies himself to be a 
Christian and shall make it evident that he is not, by 
invoking our gods, let him (notwithstanding any former 
suspicion) be pardoned upon his repentance. Informa- 
tions without the accuser's name subscribed ought not 
to be received in prosecutions of any sort, as it is intro- 
ducing a very dangerous precedent, and by no means 
agreeable to the equity of my government." 

These letters are esteemed as genuine monuments of 
ecclesiastical antiquity relative to the times immediately 
succeeding the Apostles; they being written at not most 
above forty years after the death of St. Paul. They 
have been preserved by the Christians themselves as a 
clear and unsuspicious evidence of the purity of their 
doctrine, and were frequently referred to and recognized 
by the early writers of the church to refute and set at 
naught all calumnies of their adversaries. It was one 
of the privileges of the Roman citizen, secured to him by 
the Sempronian law, that he could not be capitally con- 
victed by the suffrage and consent of the people; which 
no doubt, w^as enforced at the time that these letters 
were written. So the necessity arose making it necessary 
to send the prisoners or persons mentioned here that were 
apprehended to Rome. The women spoken of are sup- 
posed to have been required to exercise the same office 
as is mentioned that Phoebe occupied by St. Paul, whom 
he styles as deaconess of the Church of Senchrea. Their 
business was to tend the poor and sick and other char- 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 239 

liable offices, as also to assist at the ceremony of female 
baptism, for the more decent performance of that rite. 

If we impartially examine this persecution of Chris- 
tians, we will find it to have been grounded on the ancient 
constitution of the state, and not to have proceeded from 
cruelty or arbitrariness necessarily existing in the temper 
of Trajan. The Roman Legislature and Senate appears 
to have been early jealous of any innovations in point 
of public worship, as they deemed it had a tendency to 
and would ultimately, if permitted, overthrow the Ro- 
man government as then existing, and so the magistrate 
during the old republic frequently interposed in cases 
of that nature. Valerius Maximus has collected some 
instances to that purpose, and Levi mentions it as an 
established principle of the earlier ages of the common- 
wealth to guard against the introduction of foreign cere- 
monies of religion. It was an old and fixed maxim like- 
wise of the Roman government not to suffer any un- 
licensed assemblies of the people, and of this fact Levi 
is also a voucher. From hence it seems evident that the 
Christians had rendered themselves obnoxious, not so 
much to Trajan as to the ancient and civil laws of the 
state, by introducing a foreign worship and assembling 
themselves without authority. So you may see that the 
established religion of the Romans was no other, in the 
judgment and confession of their best writer, than their 
great engine of state, which could not be shaken without 
the most danger and probably without the total sub- 
version of their civil government. So they strongly in- 
culcated a tenacious observance of all its rites. 

The observation of .the celebrated Machiavelli claims 
that this is not peculiar to the Roman state, but a uni- 
versal truth in politics; for he lays down as a general 
maxim that wherever the religion of any state falls into 



240 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY 

disregard and contempt, it is impossible for the state ta 
subsist long. This is, however, to be considered in a 
civil way, and not in a religious view, as a matter of taste. 

These circumstances referred to relative to the Chris- 
tians' assemblies being held at an unusual hour, as Pliny 
tells us, seemed to have raised a surmise that they were 
of the Bacchanalian kind; for it is extremely observable 
that in the account which the Christians here give of the 
true design of their meeting they justify themselves from 
the very crimes with which the Bacchanalians have been 
charged, intimating, it would seem, that they themselves 
had been taxed with the same. 

Pliny the Younger, whose full name was Caius Plinius 
Cecilius Secundus, son of Cecilius and a sister of the 
elder Pliny, by whom he was adopted for his son, was 
born at Como, near Milan, in the year of Christ 6i. He 
was praetor under Domitian, and afterwards prefect of 
the treasury of Satran, which trust seems to have been 
conferred on him jointly by Nerva and Trajan. He was 
consul in the third year of the reign of Trajan, in the 
year of our I^ord loo, when he pronounced his celebrated 
panegyric on that emperor. He was also augur, and 
for a while governor of Pontus and Bithynia. It is very 
probable that he did not survive Trajan, who died on 
the loth of August, A. D. 117. It is maintained with 
considerable certainty that he died several years before 
Trajan, for there is nothing to show that he lived long 
after his provincial government. Pliny did not have 
the title of proconsul, but was sent into the province by 
the Emperor as his lieutenant and proprietor; Trajan 
conferring upon him proconsular power, as appears from 
some ancient rescriptions still remaining. He was sent 
from Rome in the summer of the year A. D. 106. He 
went by the way of Ephesus, and arrived in Bithynia 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 241 

on the 1 8th of September, which was the genuine or 
natural birthday of Trajan. He seems also in one of 
his epistles to speak of the same birthday in another 
year. While he was in the province he twice celebrated 
the day of Trajan's accession or the anniversary of his 
empire. The first time may have been on the 27th of 
January in the year A. D. 107, and the next or second 
on the same day of January in the year A. D. 108. It 
is likely that he did not leave the province before the 
summer of that year. According to this computation, 
Pliny's letter to Trajan concerning the Christians was 
written in the year A. D. 107, and the Emperor's rescript 
or answer to it in the same year. 

Among the things that are well established by these 
letters from Pliny to Trajan and from Trajan to Pliny, 
it is positively shown that the Christians were persecuted 
and that they received their persecution and went to 
their death for their adherence to Christ ; for it is shown 
that they repeatedly put to them the question whether 
they were Christians or not, and they persisted that they 
were, and thereupon they were ordered by him to be 
punished; and that it was acknowledged that those who 
were actually Christians, following the I^ord Jesus Christ, 
could not by any means be compelled to offer homage 
to the emperors or Caesars or the statues of the gods. 
And it was further shown that they positively were not 
guilty of any falsehood or error except in their devotion 
to Christianity and Jesus Christ; that they met together 
on stated days before it was light and worshiped Jesus 
Christ as a God, and their worship consisted in singing 
hymns among themselves alternately to Christ. It was 
further shown that these harmless meals of which they 
partook were no doubt an allusion to the I^ord's supper, 
and that they were to abstain from all wickedness of 



242 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

every form, and were to render fidelity and trustworthi- 
ness to each other; and it was further shown that this 
social meal was partaken of without any disorder or 
dissension. 

The Christians worshiping Jesus Christ as a God is 
frequently spoken of in the first Apology to the Emperor 
by Justin Martyr to Antoninus Pius, who speaks in this 
manner: "On the day called Sunday we all meet to- 
gether, on which day Jesus Christ, our Savior, arose from 
the dead. On the day before Saturday he was crucified. 
On the day after Saturday, which is Sunday, He ap- 
peared to His apostles and disciples and taught them 
those things which we have set before you and refer 
to your consideration. If these things appear agreeable 
to reason and truth, pay regard to them. If they ap- 
pear trifling, reject them as such. But do not treat as 
enemies nor appoint capital punishment to those who 
have done no harm, for we foretell unto you that you 
will not escape the future judgment of God if you per- 
sist in unrighteousness." We find further that, in ac- 
cordance with Christ's teachings to His apostles and 
Christian followers that they should always obey legal 
authority and the laws of the country in which they 
should be, when the edict of Emperor Trajan or the 
governor prohibited their assemblies, he testifies that 
they desisted from doing so at that time. 

We find further, in a report to Trajan, that he thought 
the Christians were possessed of a pernicious and ex- 
cessive superstition in worshiping Jesus Christ as a God. 
We find, too, that the Christians in Pontius and Bithynia 
and the surrounding country were very numerous, as he 
says they were not only in the large towns, but in the 
country; and further says that the temples of the gods 
at one time were almost deserted. We have a further 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 243 

proof that the Christians were sold into slavery and for 
the purpose of being taken into the arena, and that at 
this early date the purchases, at least in that country, 
for the Christians had become very numerous almost 
within the life of a man after the crucifixion of Jesus 
Christ, and not more than six years after the death of 
St. John. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

Th^ Corresponde:nce) Between Pontius Pilate and 
THE Emperor o^ Rome, and Other Corre- 
spondence Relative to Jesus Christ. 

Notwithstanding all the array of testimony and evi- 
dence that has been herein shown to have come down 
to us from the enemies of Jesus Christ and His reHgion 
from as early a time as when men did mingle with 
one another upon the earth, who were acquainted with 
some of the Apostles and their immediate associates, 
which dates back to as early a date as A. D. 105 or 107, 
about nine years after the death of St. John, we now 
think it would be proper to further show what was said 
about the Savior by some of His enemies who were more 
closely associated with Him, in setting out and showing 
that the Savior was taken before Annas after He was 
betrayed by Judas Iscariot into the hands of the high 
priest and elders of the Jewish people. Judas himself, 
after performing this unwarrantable act, became peni- 
tent, as he knew he had done a great wrong, and re- 
turned to those whom he had entered into negotiations 
with and sold his Lord for thirty pieces of silver, and 
informed them that he had done a very great wrong, 
and asked them to recall all their transactions and re- 



244 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

ceive back their thirty pieces of silver. On their refusal 
he became very desperate, and throwing the money 
down on the floor of the temple, he went out in a dis- 
tracted condition and committed suicide by hanging him- 
self. Now this fact alone has never been put in question 
by anyone, and ought to be sufficient proof that Jesus 
Christ was what He represented Himself to be to the 
world, and did what He did do in the presence of His 
disciples. These priests to whom Judas made his be- 
trayal informed and turned over all proceedings to the 
officers who conducted the affairs of the Jews, and among 
them, as has been seen, one Annas, who was the father- 
in-law of Caiaphas, who undoubtedly consulted with one 
another relative to what course was to be pursued rel- 
ative to the disposing of the Savior; Caiaphas, who was 
the high priest the year that Jesus was crucified, sat in 
judgment in his flowing robes against the Savior, and 
after, as it were, the mock trial and unjust procedure 
took place, he ordered the Savior to be scourged and led 
away to be crucified; and yet, being apprehensive that 
he was doing a great wrong in the presence of his God, 
he then ordered that He be taken before Pontius Pilate, 
who was an officer of the Roman government, stationed 
in that country by the Romans as a governor of the 
province of Jerusalem, he well knowing that all the clam- 
ors and claims made by the Jews against the Savior 
were false. Pontius Pilate rose up in his fear, and or- 
dered them to bring a basin of water, that he might 
exhibit to them an object-lesson to show to them that 
he wanted to be held innocent of the persecution or 
doing any wrong whatever to this just man; then, wash- 
ing his hands in token that he did not want any of the 
blood of this just man on him, he so proclaimed it to 
the rabble, who were Jews seeking His destruction. 



MORTALS AND IMMORTAUTY. 245 

Prior to the time of the apprehending of the Savior 
and taking Him before the officials, Herod the Great, 
who was king of the Jews, and Pontius Pilate, who was 
acting procurator for the Roman Empire, were at enmity 
toward one another. This no doubt was because of the 
fact that they represented different people and countries 
and that Herod felt that the Roman officer, Pontius Pi- 
late, had been and was making many encroachments 
upon the powers that should be vested in him. At the 
investigation of the Savior as to whether he was guilty 
of the charges brought against Him by the Jews, Herod 
and Pilate became friends, and, so far as history shows, 
forever remained so as long as Herod lived. Both of 
these men had much correspondence, no doubt, and 
thought relative to the slaying of this man, Jesus Christ, 
as they called Him, for the reason that they knew them- 
selves that He had been guilty of no wrong, and that 
no accusation could rightfully be brought against Him, 
charging Him with anything worthy of death, and that 
all his trials from beginning to end were nothing but a 
piece of the worst kind of mockery and a travesty against 
the Jewish as well as against the Roman law, which 
maintained that no man should be put to death without 
first having a fair and impartial trial before twelve of 
the peers of his countrymen. 

This Roman law being so fair in trials was the cause 
of Jesus Christ being put to death under the manner 
of the trials then conducted by the Jewish Sanhedrim, 
for the convicting of heretics or any person who was 
fully proven to be an enemy of the Jewish doctrine and 
its teachings. Therefore it was their custom to bring 
before their council a man charged with these crimes; 
then, finding him guilty, to send out two men for forty 
days in search of someone who would come and answer 



246 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

in defence of the criminal, proving and showing that the 
charges against him and the testimony given were false. 
This was claimed to have been done by the Jewish 
Sanhedrim that tried the Savior, and they further assert 
that they found no one to come in defence of Him. 
However, this all has been claimed to have been a pre- 
tence of the Jews themselves, so as to justify their course 
in taking the Savior and crucifying Him on the cross. 
Yet, notwithstanding this fact, it must be acknowl- 
edged and admitted by everyone who has looked into 
this great and absorbing question, that these Jewish and 
Roman officers connected with this great wrong and in- 
justice, so far as they were concerned, would be com- 
pelled under the Roman law to make a full and com- 
plete report of their doings to the Roman emperor and 
Senate, as well as to keep a record of the fact. Yet the 
record kept at Jerusalem undoubtedly was principally 
kept by the Jewish Sanhedrim, for the reason that ulti- 
mately they had full charge and control of carrying out 
this awful tragedy; and no doubt after the Savior had 
risen from the dead, and they had discovered what a 
wonderful mistake they had made, these records were 
obliterated and utterly destroyed at their earliest con- 
venience; but the records and statements which were 
carried from Jerusalem, from Pontius Pilate to Rome, 
as well as any records of King Herod, would remain 
among the records of the history of the Roman Empire 
for a time at least; for the Roman government was not 
likely to destroy them so long as the government itself 
was intact and had full dominion and control over the 
Roman Empire. From the Roman history wherein it 
is shown concerning the death of Jesus Christ at Jeru- 
salem they have procured some very valuable letters 
and manuscripts, which were correspondence that took 



IMORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 247 

place between King Herod and Pontius Pilate and the 
Emperor of Rome relative to the trial and crucifixion 
of the Savior; these letters and manuscripts were pro- 
cured from Rome at or near the sixth century, and are 
kept sacred in the British Museum; and it is related 
that Dr. Tischendorf states in his Apocryphae (Prolegg., 
p. 56) that he has a copy of the same in Greek from a 
Paris manuscript, of v/hich he relates and says: "Script- 
ure satis differt, non item argumentum." That is, that 
these manuscripts are practically the same as those in 
the British Museum and procured from Rome, only dif- 
fering somewhat in the language, but in their meaning 
and import there is no difference. 

The letters are followed by a few extracts, which seem 
to have been added by some who have copied them, and 
followed by the subscription to Pilate's letter. It is 
supposed that by Justinus we are to understand Justus 
of Tiberias, of whom Josephus speaks as a historian of 
his time. As to the genuineness of these letters and 
manuscripts there can only be a conjecture, in that they 
were found under the management and control of the 
Rom.an government, and that fact alone shows that they 
were placed there not by anyone who was a friend of 
Jesus Christ or His followers, because the Roman govern- 
ment was at enmity with the Christian religion, and they 
would not have originated them and put them among 
their records; and of course the report and the things 
conveyed in those letters to the Roman government and 
from one officer to the other are such that would in all 
probability take place under the existing circumstances — 
that is, of what took place at the crucifixion of the Lord 
Jesus Christ, and in a measure bear out some of the 
statements made in the four gospels by Matthew, Mark,, 
lyuke, and John, as to the Savior's crucifixion. The let- 



248 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

ters will not be literally set out herein, but they can be 
seen and read in full in the British Museum, in I^ondon, 
England. They include the correspondence between King 
Herod and the Governor of Jerusalem and the Emperor 
of Rome. 

The letter written to Pilate by Herod shows that 
Herod was in very great anxiety as to what course to 
pursue relative to his conduct towards the Lord Jesus 
Christ, and states to Pilate that he is in great anxiety 
because of the many afflictions that had overtaken him, 
and relates that his daughter Herodias was playing upon 
the ice of a pool, and the ice broke with her and her 
body went down and her head was cut off and laid upon 
the surface of the ice, and the mother of the daughter 
was holding the head in her lap, and that the whole 
house was in great sorrow; and that he had heard of 
this man Jesus, and he was very anxious to meet Him 
alone, so that he might hear His words, thinking that 
he might discern the fact whether the Lord Jesus Christ 
was like other men or possessed powers beyond ordi- 
nary man; and relates further that he felt himself con- 
demned for the things which he did to John the Baptist,. 
and said that in his mocking the Christ no doubt he had 
received the reward of unrighteousness; claiming also 
that he had shed blood of much other children upon the 
earth, and he felt that the judgments of God were right- 
eous, and that all men received those judgments in just 
proportion as they ought to from God; and solicited 
Pilate to offer up supplication to God for him; and he 
said also that he himself was afflicted with a dreadful 
disease he called dropsy, being in great distress, and 
thought this had come upon him because of his opposi- 
tion to the religious rites of baptism of John, and he 
explained to Pilate, saying, "My brother, the judgments 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 249 

of God are righteous." And he also informed him that 
his wife, on account of her great grief, had become bUnd 
in her left eye. This he said he felt was a retribution 
because he sought to blind the eye of righteousness, and 
quotes Scripture, saying: "There is no peace to the 
evil-doers, saith the Lord." And he further maintains 
and claims that the priests had been afflicted because of 
the fact that they had been engaged in delivering unto 
him the Just One, and he regarded that the end of the 
world was near at hand for the reason that the Gentiles 
had become heirs of the faith and that the children of 
light shall be cast out, for the reason of their rejection 
of the things which were set forth by the Lord Jesus, or 
God concerning His Son, and states: ''Therefore it is 
best to gird up thy loins and receive righteousness, thou 
and thy wife, remembering Jesus night and day; for 
the kingdom shall belong to the Gentiles, for we have 
mocked the Righteous One." He appealed to Pilate, 
saying, ''Because at one time we were in power for his 
household to be carefully buried and to be done so by 
him rather than by the priests," stating that the Script- 
ures say that the coming of Jesus Christ's vengeance 
shall overtake them. And in token of his friendship he 
sends earrings of his deceased daughter and a ring from 
his own finger, and desires him to keep them as a me- 
morial of his decease, claiming that he is already being 
eaten up by worms, that the judgment now already is 
coming against him; but he seems to be more afraid of 
the judgment to come, for he says to Pilate that they 
both stand before the works of the Hving God, and says 
that this judgment against him is only for a time, but 
the judgment of God is for ever. 



250 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

Le^ttkr from Pilatb to Herod the Tetrarch. 

Pilate writing to Herod tells him that the day in 
which he ordered Jesus Christ to be delivered to him, 
Pilate took pity on himself by washing his hands with 
innocence concerning Him who rose from the grave after 
three days, notwithstanding he knew that Herod desired 
that he (Pilate) should be associated with him in the act 
of crucifying; that the executioners or ones who took 
part in crucifying the I^ord Jesus and the soldiers who 
watched His sepulchre said that He had risen from the 
dead, and stated that he had the confirmation that He 
appeared bodily in Galilee in His same form and with 
His same voice, proclaiming the same doctrine, and had 
shown Himself to His disciples without having been 
changed, with the exception that He showed boldness 
in declaring His resurrection and an everlasting kingdom. 
And he also informs him that heaven and earth rejoice 
over the risen Christ, and further states to Herod that 
his wife was at that time fully confirmed in the fact 
that she had had a real vision when she warned him 
not to have anything to do with this Just Man, and 
when Procla, his wife, learned that Jesus arose from the 
dead and appeared in Galilee, she went with Longinus 
the centurion and twelve soldiers, being the ones who 
had watched at the sepulchre, and they greeted the face 
of Christ and saw Him with His disciples, and He cast 
His eyes upon them and exclaimed unto them: ''What 
is it? Do you believe in me?" And Procla exclaimed : 
"In the covenant which God gave to the fathers it is said 
that everybody which has perished should live through the 
death of Jesus," which they had seen, and that they saw 
Him then and there alive Whom they had crucified, and 
Jesus asked them who believed on Him and beheved His 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 251 

Father, God, who is in Him, for such He claimed that 
He had loosed the cord of death and broken the gates of 
Sheol [the grave], and that His coming again would be 
hereafter." Pilate further states to him that when they 
had seen these things, she came to him, telling him of 
them, and was weeping; for she said they were unjust 
against Him when they had persecuted Him. 

And he told Herod that on his way he says these 
things, that he had taken counsel with him, and con- 
strained him to arm himself against Jesus and to judge 
Him that judgeth all, and to scourge the Just One, who 
was lyord of the just, and when they drew near to Him, 
he writes Herod, he heard a voice from Heaven which 
seemed Hke dreadful thunder. The earth trembled and 
gave forth a sweet smell, like unto which was never 
perceived in the temple of Jerusalem, and when he was 
in the way the Lord saw him as he stood talking with 
the disciples, and he said he prayed in his heart, for he 
knew very well it was the one whom Herod had deliv- 
ered unto him, and that He was the Lord who created 
all things and was the creator of all; and when they 
saw Him, they all fell upon their faces before His feet. 
Pilate said, O Lord, I have sinned," in a loud voice, 
"because I sat and judged Thee who avengeth all in 
truth, and now I know that Thou art God, the Soa of 
God, that I beheld Thy humanity and not Thy divinity, 
and the Children of Israel constrained me to do evil 
unto Thee. Have pity therefore unto me, O God of 
Israel." He said that Pilate's wife was in such grief 
and conviction as to the conduct of her husband toward 
the Lord Jesus that she called upon her God to have 
compassion upon her and not judge her in accordance 
with the unjust deed performed by Pontius Pilate, her 
husband, and asked Him also to remember and forgive 



252 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

her husband "in Thy Glory." Pilate further states that 
he had no desire whatever to crucify the Lord, notwith- 
standing the fact that His mahgners, the Jews, had 
charged Him with calhng Himself a king; but at that 
time was when he turned Him over to those seeking 
His destruction. 

The) Epistle) oi^ Pilate to th^ Roman Emperor, 
Tiberius Caesar. 

He informs Tiberius that bitter punishment has been 
at length inflicted by the will of the people upon Jesus 
Christ, although he says he was unwiUing that it should 
take place and was very apprehensive of the results; 
that this man Christ was one of the most devout, good, 
and truthful, a strict man of all law. Notwithstanding 
the people made a wonderful effort and all their scribes 
and chiefs and elders agreed that this ambassador of 
these great truths should be put to death. * 'Their own 
prophets, like the sybils with us, advising the contrary." 
When He was hanged or crucified supematiu-al signs 
appeared and the philosophers predicted that ruin would 
come to the whole world; that His followers were con- 
sistent in their conduct and actions and their behavior 
in life, and did believe in their Master and His teach- 
ings; that if he had not feared that a great sedition 
might arise among the people, ''for they seemed almost 
furious, this man could have yet been living with us, 
although in my fidelity to thy dignity and prompted 
by my own incHnation, I did not use my greatest efforts 
to prevent the sale and suffering of righteous blood" — 
guiltless, no doubt, of everything of which He was ac- 
cused through the maliciousness of men, and yet the 
Scriptures do interpret their own destruction. 



^fORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 253 

Report oi^ Pupate) to Augustus C^sar. 
This report was sent at the time the Lord was cruci- 
fied, and was accompanied by a private report; and in 
addressing the Emperor he used this language: ''To 
the most potent, august, divine, and awful Augustus 
Caesar, Pilate, administrator of the Eastern Province: 
I have received information in consequence of which I 
am struck with great fear and trembling, for in the 
province in which I am administering over one of the 
cities called Jerusalem, the Jews delivered unto me a 
certain man called Jesus, and charged him with many 
accusations, all of which they were unable to prove with 
consistent evidence. They charged him, however, with 
one heresy, in that Jesus said the Sabbath was not 
to be observed as a rest or to be observed by them, 
for he had performed many cures on that day and made 
the blind to see and the lame to walk, raised the dead, 
cleansed lepers and healed the paralytic, who were wholly 
unable to move the body or brace their nerves, but 
could only speak and give discourse, and yet he gave 
them power to walk and run. All these infirmities are 
removed by his word alone. There was another very 
strange occurrence that took place, for he raised up a 
man who had been four days dead. He summoned him 
to come forth by his word alone, and the dead man 
arose from the tomb, and he commanded him to run, 
nor did the dead man at all delay, but as a bridegroom 
out of his chamber, so did he go forth from his tomb, 
filled with abundant perfume. He also performed many 
other wonderful deeds and that of healing the people, 
many of which were beyond any hope of healing from 
the physicians." 

Pilate says he makes known these things that he has 
been fully informed of that Jesus did on the Sabbath;, 



254 MORTAI.S AND IMMORTALITY. 

and He did some miracles even greater than some that 
he had mentioned, *'and yet Herod, Archelaus, PhiHp, 
Annas, and Caiaphas, with all the people, delivered him 
to me, making a great tumult against him in order that 
I might try him, and therefore he was crucified, after 
iDcing scourged, though I could find no cause of evil in 
him so far as their accusations were concerned. When 
he was being crucified, there was darkness all over the 
world. The sun was obscured for half a day, the stars 
appeared, but they seemed to have no luster in them, 
and the moon lost its brightness and seemed to be tinged 
with blood, and the world of the departed was swallowed 
up, so that the very sanctuary of the temple, as they 
called it, did not appear to the Jews themselves at their 
fall, but they perceived a chasm in the earth and the 
roaring of successive thunder, and while this condition 
existed the dead appeared to be rising again, and many 
were heard to proclaim that this person was Abraham, 
Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and Job, who had been dead before 
some three hundred years. They made great lamenta- 
tions over the Jews because of their transgressions, say- 
ing that their laws were destroyed and their nation. 
The earthquake continued from the sixth hoinr of the 
preparation to the ninth hour, and when it was even on 
the first day of the week, there came a sound from 
heaven and the heavens became seven times more lu- 
minous than on all other days. At the third hour of the 
ninth the sun appeared more luminous than it had ever 
shone, lighting up the whole hemisphere, and lightning 
flashed that suddenly came forth in a storm, and men 
were heard to exclaim: 'Jesus that was crucified has 
risen again. Come up from Hades [the grave], ye that 
were enslaved in the subterraneous recesses of Hades.' 
Not one synagogue of the Jews was left, for they all 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 255 

■disappeared in the ruin of Jerusalem. Therefore, being 
astounded by the terror and being possessed with the 
most horrid feeHngs, I have written what I saw and sent 
it to thy excellency, and I have sent what was done to 
Jesus by the Jews to thy divinity, my lord.'* 

Report of Pilate to Tiberius C^sar in Rome. 

*'To the most potent, august, dreadful, and divine 
Augustus, Pontius Pilate, administrator of the Eastern 
Province," relates that he has undertaken to communi- 
cate with him in writing the things that were done and 
took place relative to Jesus Christ of a city in his prov- 
ince called Jerusalem, wherein a great temple of the Jews 
was erected, and that from that place this Jewish people 
did take a man that they call Jesus and brought him 
before him with endless accusations, but were unable to 
establish a proof to any of their charges. In relating 
about this man Jesus Christ he tells of his many mir- 
acles performed and of his raising the dead I^azarus, 
showing that he had been dead a long time, so that 
his remains had commenced to decay as related in the 
Scriptures. He healed many of evil spirits who were 
possessed of demons, and many other wonderful miracles 
did he perform, to such an extent that even the gods 
were astonished. Many of these things that he per- 
formed the Jews reported were accomplished on the 
Sabbath day, and insisted that it was a violation of 
the Jewish law; performing them on an unlawful day 
would constitute him a criminal, and he should be pun- 
ished. He tells those that were concerned in that 
proceeding to condemn him, the leaders of which were 
Herod, Archelaus, Philip, Annas, and Caiaphas, who 
were the principal men that demanded that this man 



256 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

Jesus should be placed on trial before him. They al- 
leged that the whole people rose up en masse in a great 
tumultuous outcry, demanding of them that he should 
be crucified. He states that he was crucified, and when 
the same took place, darkness came over the face of the 
earth and the sun was altogether hidden and the sky 
appeared dark while it was yet day; the stars shone, 
but they had no luster, and he relates that he did not 
suppose the Emperor was aware of the fact that they were 
compelled to Hght their lamps from the sixth hour until 
evening. He says, notwithstanding that the moon was 
full, it had the appearance of blood; claiming that the 
stars and Orion made lamentation to the Jews for their 
perfidy m committing the crime of crucif}dng the Just 
One. He further relates to the Emperor that the light 
of day came as though the sua shone at the midnight 
hour, and that countless hosts of angels cried out saying, 
"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace and 
good-will among men"; saying, "Come up from Hades, 
ye who are in bondage in the depths of Hades [the grave]." 
He further relates that the mountains and hills were 
moved and the rocks were rent, and great chasms were 
made in the earth, so that the very places of the abyss 
were visible, and it was noticed that men came forth 
from their graves, among whom were Abraham, Isaac, 
and Jacob, and twelve of the patriarchs; and the multi- 
tude then walked about singing hymns to God and cry- 
ing with loud voices, saying that "God, the Lord our 
God would rise from the dead, making the dead aHve 
again from Hades [the grave]." "Therefore, my lord 
and king, all that night the light ceased not, and many 
of the Jews died and were sunk and swallowed up in 
chasms, and some of their bodies were noticed after- 
v/ards," that is, the bodies of the Jevv^s who were arrayed 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 257 

against Jesus Christ. And there was only one syna- 
gogue that remained with the Jews; the rest, he main- 
tained, were all destroyed and overwhelmed. 

After this report was sent to the Emperor by Pontius 
Pilate, the Emperor ordered his soldiers to apprehend 
Pilate and bring him before Caesar at Rome as a pris- 
oner. When he was brought into Rome and Caesar 
knew he was coming, he seated himself in the temple 
of the gods above all the Senate and with all the army 
and with all the multitude of his power, and commanded 
that Pilate should stand in the entrance. It is related 
in the report of the condemnation of Pilate that Caesar 
said to him, "Most impious one, when thou sawest so 
great signs done by that man, why didst thou dare to 
do thus?" and alleged that in his doing these acts he had 
ruined all the world. Pilate sought to appease the 
wrath of the king by shifting the responsibiUty from 
himself upon the multitude of the Jews, claiming that 
the full matter rested in their hands, and at that Caesar 
inquired who they were, and Pilate related the names 
of Herod, Archelaus, PhiHp, Annas, and Caiaphas, who 
were accompanied by the multitude; Caesar inquired 
whether it was because of them and was in their pur- 
pose that he carried this out, and Pilate said that the 
people were seditious and insubordinate and not sub- 
missive to the king's power. Caesar condemned Pilate, 
saying: ''When he was submitted to you, you should 
at once have sent him to Caesar rather than to consent 
to the crucifying of such a man, who showed himself 
to be just and wrought such great and good miracles, 
as thou didst report to me, for certainly if he did what 
thou didst report to me, he manifested himself, without 
doubt, as being the Christ, the King of the Jews." It 
is related that when Caesar made this remark, all the 



258 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

heathen gods of the Romans in and around about where 
they were fell down together, and the multitude that 
had gathered in and around about Caesar were filled with 
trembling because of the utterance of the word and the 
fall of their gods, and the people all dispersed with great 
wonderment at what happened, and Caesar thought Pi- 
late should be kept so that he might know the truth 
about Jesus Christ. 

Upon the following day, when Caesar was before the 
Senate, he then and there sought to put further questions 
to Pilate, and at the same time he cautioned him, saying 
unto him, *'Say the truth, most impious one, for through 
thy impious deeds, which thou didst commit against 
Jesus,'* saying that on account of his evil conduct even 
their gods had been brought to ruin; and then demanded 
of him, saying, ''Who was he that was crucified? for 
his name hath destroyed all the gods." Pilate then re- 
lated, ''Verily, his records are true," and admitted that 
he was satisfied himself from His appearance that He 
was greater than all of their gods put together, as He 
did more wonderful things than had ever been accom- 
plished by any of them; but insisted that His execution 
and humiliation were brought about because of the se- 
ditious, lawless, and ungodly multitude of the Jews. 
Then Caesar became angry, and he called the councils 
together, consisting of all the Senate and officers, and or- 
dered a decree to be written against the Jews. This de- 
cree was sent to "Wcinius, who holdeth the first place 
in the east country," relating unto him the audacity 
perpetrated by the Jewish inhabitants at Jerusalem and 
in the cities around about, with their lawless doings; 
how they compelled Pontius Pilate to crucify a certain 
god called Jesus, and on account of this great trans- 
gression of theirs the world was in darkness and drawn 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 259 

into ruin. Domitian then and there, with a body of 
soldiers, went to them at once and proclaimed their 
subjection and bondage in accordance with the decree; 
and in doing this he should act in such a way that in 
obeying and proceeding against the Jews he should scat- 
ter them abroad among all the nations of the earth and 
enslave them and drive them from Judea as soon as it 
was possible. And when this- decree reached the east 
country, Licinius obeyed the command or decree and 
laid waste all the nations of the Jews, and caused those 
who were left in Judea to go into slavery with them 
that were scattered among the Gentiles. This was done 
in order that it might be known by Caesar that these 
things had been done by Licinius against the Jews in 
the east country in order that he might be pleased. 

Caesar then ordered Pilate questioned again, and then 
commanded the captain, Albius by name, to cut off 
Pilate's head, for he had laid hands upon **the just man 
that is called Christ" ; he also should fall in like manner 
and find no deHverance. When Pilate appeared this 
time, he offered up a subdued prayer, asking the Lord 
not to destroy him with the wicked Jews, and saying 
he would not have laid hands upon Him for that nation 
of lawless Jews had it not been that they provoked 
a sedition against him (Pilate). He appealed to God 
that what he did was done in ignorance, and therefore 
asked Him to have mercy upon him for his sin and to 
overlook the evil that was in him, exclaiming: ''O Lord, 
in Thy servant Procla, who standeth with me in this 
the hour of my death, whom Thou taughtest to proph- 
esy that Thou must be nailed to the cross, do not pun- 
ish her too in my sin, but forgive us and number us 
among the portions of Thy just ones." It is related 
that after Pilate finished his prayer, there was a voice 



26o MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

heard from Heaven, saying that all the generations of 
the famiHes of the Gentiles should be blessed because 
through him (Pilate) all these things were accomplished 
that were spoken of Jesus Christ by the prophets, telling 
Pilate that he must appear as a witness of the Lord 
Jesus Christ at His second coming, when the twelve 
tribes of Israel shall be judged. It is related that then 
the prefect cut off Pilate's head, and it is related that 
the head was received by an angel, and when Procla, 
his wife, perceived this, she also immediately expired, 
and was laid away with her husband. 

The condemnation of Pilate took place after Caesar 
became sick and was suffering from a disease and had 
sent his messenger to Pilate to have this just man who 
was healing all people by his word sent to Rome, so he 
might cure them of their diseases and restore him to his 
original health; and when this messenger arrived, Pilate 
informed him that the man Jesus had been crucified; 
and the messenger Volusianus, having heard the order 
of the Emperor which he carried to Pilate, caused Pilate 
to be greatly alarmed and terrified, because he knew 
that the reason Jesus was crucified was through envy 
and hatred that had been manifested towards the Sa- 
vior to him only, and that there was no just cause for 
His crucifixion; but yet, when he answered the mes- 
senger, he said to him: "This man was a malefactor 
and a man who drew after himself all the people, and 
through the council of the wise men of the city his cruci- 
fixion was brought about." The messenger met a woman 
whose name was Veronica, who claimed to have a per- 
sonal acquaintance with Jesus and knew herself that this 
man Jesus had healed many diseases by His word alone, 
and the messenger inquired, ''Why have the Jews slain 
him ? ' ' And the woman wept, exclaiming that He was her 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 261 

Lord and God, whom Pilate through envy had condemned 
and commanded to be crucified. And the messenger 
very much regretted the situation because he found he 
was unable to carry out the orders of his king. Pon- 
tius Pilate was then apprehended, as related, and car- 
ried to Caesar, Pilate taking with him the seamless coat 
that Jesus wore, putting it on his own shoulders when 
he was before Caesar; and it is related that Pilate's 
wearing the seamless coat caused Caesar to become ame- 
liorated in his feelings toward Pilate, but after the seam- 
less coat was laid away he then again assumed his usual 
f eeUng, ready to condemn him to death ; and it is claimed 
and asserted that Pilate's body was fastened to a great 
stone and sunk in the river Tiber, and that the Romans 
dragged him out of the river and carried him to Vienna 
and there sank him in the river Rhone. 

Referring to reports above as to the proceedings rel- 
ative to the crucifixion and condemnation of Jesus Christ 
and also the trial and condemnation of Pilate, no doubt 
they are intermixed with many statements that have 
been placed therein by those who related them in the 
way of trying to make it clear as they felt in their minds 
it should be, and some degree of consideration should 
be used in receiving the same fully and literally as the 
truth. However, the writer has here set forth the facts 
as recorded and as they are related in the correspondence 
between the officers, as shown by all writers, both pro- 
fane and sacred, who should have been concerned in 
Jesus Christ's trial and death as shown in the manu- 
scripts obtained from the records of the Roman govern- 
ment. This report is not in detail, but all the things 
herein stated do appear in these manuscripts. There 
can be no reasonable doubt but that the Roman govern- 
ment did have all the proceedings relative to the cruci- 



262 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

fixion and trial of the Savior, originally given to it by its 
provincial officers, as the laws of the Roman Empire 
would demand and exact this to be done, and necessarily 
these reports would be sent by the ones in charge and 
who took part in the transaction of this great tragedy 
at Calvary. There is a further fact existing relative 
to these manuscripts being obtained from the Roman 
government by parties interested in the result of the 
trial of the Lord Jesus Christ, in that the Christian re- 
ligion became very prominent in the city of Rome in the 
third and fourth centuries, as Constantine was the em- 
peror who succeeded in adopting the Christian religion 
and recognizing it as the religion of the Roman Empire. 
No doubt the proceedings of the trial and crucifix- 
ion of the Savior, as reported by their officers who 
took part therein, were preserved by the Roman govern- 
ment as a part of their records up to the time of Con- 
stantine the Great, and when he became converted to 
the Christian religion he certainly would permit the fol- 
lowers of that faith to receive and preserve and keep 
intact a copy of all those proceedings and reports made 
to the emperors at or near the timeof the Savior's cruci- 
fixion; so that you can reasonably feel sm-e that the 
substance of these letters are in fact the truth relative 
to the trial and condemnation of the Savior before the 
Roman officer Pontius Pilate. It is shown in other 
places, both in sacred and profane history, that Pontius 
Pilate never took a hostile attitude toward the Savior, 
but was prone to disagree with and not to recognize the 
claims of the Jews in their efforts to condemn Him. 
It is shown in the writings of the Apostles that Pilate 
wrote an inscription over the cross Hke this, ''Jesus 
Christ, the King of the Jews," and that the Jews mur- 
mured about this, and demanded them to make that 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 263 

writing to read, "Jesus Christ, who said he was King of 
the Jews." But Pontius Pilate said this he would not do ; 
"That which I have written I will not change." 



CHAPTER XX. 
HiLLEL, A Jewish Rabbi. 

The subject of this sketch was president of the Jewish 
Sanhedrim in the city of Jerusalem, and he flourished in 
the latter half of the first century B. C. He was dis- 
tinguished from other rabbins of the same name by the 
surname of Hazzaken the Elder. They also called him 
"the Babylonian," which arose from his native country, 
and he was admired for his honesty, mildness, and love 
of peace. He was also celebrated as a reformer and a 
great propagator of the wise study of the traditional law, 
the result of which was afterwards collected and put into 
a book (called under its title the name of Mishna) by 
one of his descendants and successors to the presidency 
of the Sanhedrim, Rabbi Judah the Holy. The Hillel 
School flourished especially during the reign of Herod 
the Great. 

Besides the legal decisions of Hillel, there are many 
and various sayings of his preserved in the Mishna, as 
well as memoirs and anecdotes in the Gemara, and they 
attribute to him such sayings as these: "Do not to 
others what you would not hke others to do to you." 
"Love peace and pursue it at any cost." "Always re- 
member that it is better to be persecuted than to per- 
secute." "And be not prone to anger." "He that giv- 
eth his alms in secret is greater than Moses himself.*' 
"It is much better to utter a short prayer with devotion 



264 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

than a long one without fervency.'* "The man who, 
having put one piece of bread in his basket, says, * What 
shall I eat to-morrow,' is a man of very little faith.'* 
Now these sayings and many others of less importance 
have been offered by various writers to show the fact 
that Jesus Christ did not originate many sayings in the 
blessed Scriptures which have been attributed to Him. 
If, however, you will make a careful examination of the 
facts, they will show that many of these statements or 
sayings may have been copied after the sayings of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, for the Mishna was written up by 
the Talmudists long after the crucifixion of the Lord 
Jesus Christ, and history does not show that they are 
all original with Hillel. Such an argument shows a total 
want of insight and fairness by the one who advances 
it for the purpose of overthrowing or bringing into dis- 
favor the faith in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, 
which is so far-reaching in spiritual power and takes 
hold of its followers with such a blessed strengthening 
and upbuilding influence that all those who have ex- 
perienced this can readily see what little import should 
be accredited to it. Besides, take all the statements of 
the Lord Jesus Christ, and they on their face show the 
greatest originality and have a great and far-reaching 
power that comes direct to the souls of men who are 
seeking for righteous things, with a power of uplift that 
the statements of no other being on earth could or ever 
did utter. Among all the reformers among men, aside 
from those who have followed the Jewish religion, there 
is nothing spiritual in any of the things that they advo- 
cate, nor is there anything that hints towards the faith 
of beHeving in a spiritual God, that will come to men in 
a spiritual way, that will lift them up out of a despond- 
ent condition and place them in such a joyous frame of 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 265 

mind and peaceful condition as following after the say- 
ings and living closely to the teachings set forth by the 
Lord Jesus Christ. 

This man Hillel, no doubt, was one who was a be- 
liever in the faith of the Jewish religion and had some 
knowledge of God's kingdom and put forth many very 
wise and good statements for men and women to follow 
after; but when you come to compare them with the 
sayings of the Lord Jesus Christ, they utterly sink into 
nothingness, and it can be truly said that the Savior 
spoke as one with power and knowledge, and not as the 
Scribes and Pharisees. Hilkl, it is said, was born B. C. 
70 or 75, and died about B. C. 10, so that in accordance 
with his life and death it is shown that undoubtedly 
what has been claimed for him has been gathered from 
statements traditionally handed down until the time 
that the writers of the Talmud or Mishna gathered 
them and inserted them therein, so they could be very 
easily moulded from the statements made by our Savior. 
The Mishna was compiled from tradition and some few 
laws that were recognized and practiced during the first 
and second century by the Hebrews or Jews, and these 
were placed in book form during the last half of the 
second centiuy. The book was written in Hebrew and 
divided into six principal parts and about sixty-three 
treatises, which slightly referred to most of the things 
that entered into the manners, customs, and mode of life 
of the Hebrew nation, as well as to give the procedure of 
the law to worship in the temple. You can see from this 
that, so far as his writings being entirely reliable as his- 
torical fact, they should not be considered in that light. 



266 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

Saint Paul. 

Saint Paul, or Saul of Tarsus, is no doubt one of the 
greatest characters in all history, and as time passes on 
his name becomes none the less received as a man of 
great power and influence in everything that he did or 
said, and we will recount some of his Hfe's work and 
scrutinize every act and motive that we can to ascertain 
the true inwardness of the things by which he was 
actuated and impelled to tread the earth in the manner 
in which he did. His life and work are a study for every- 
one, and the more you study and investigate his Epistles 
and his life, the more you can not help but become con- 
vinced that he was a messenger of the Most High. St. 
Paul was a Grecian or Hellenistic Jew — that is, a Jew 
born beyond the limits of Palestine, and until his con- 
version a rigid Hebrew of the sect of the Pharisees by 
parentage and by training as well as by personal con- 
viction. His original and Jewish name was Saul, which 
appears to have been dropped and that of Paul adopted 
soon after his accession to the Christian ministry, for 
what cause it is not possible to ascertain, nor whether 
the name Paul had ever been used as one of his appel- 
lations before his conversion. He was born in the city 
of Tarsus, which was the metropolis of Cilicia. The ex- 
act date of his birth is not known, but is very approx- 
imately determined by circumstances, as Paul is spoken 
of as being a young man at the time of the martyrdom 
of St. Stephen ; as the best chronologists place that event 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 267 

about A. D. 38, it is thought Paul's birth took place 
about A. D. 10. His family enjoyed the right of com- 
mon citizenship conferred on account of service done to 
the Roman government. All of his writings show that 
he possessed Gentile as well as Jewish learning. In ac- 
cordance with the rabbinical law, he was taught the trade 
of a tent-maker, the practice of which was of great serv- 
ice to him throughout his life in getting a HveHhood. 
Paul's knowledge of the laws and the prophets and 
other Jewish education was obtained at Jerusalem under 
the tutorship of Gamaliel, the most learned rabbi of his 
time; and his first appearance in history was the part 
he took in the martyrdom of St. Stephen, being at that 
time a student at Jerusalem and greatly interested in 
the Pharisaic interests in and around that city. This 
was the starting-point of his becoming a bitter and un- 
relenting persecutor of the Christian religion and its 
devotees, and he offered his voluntary service to the 
Jewish Sanhedrim for that purpose. The Jewish San- 
hedrim granted him a commission, conferring upon him 
full power to apprehend and bring to trial all per- 
sons at Jerusalem and in strange cities around about 
who adhered to the new Christian faith; and his efforts 
were reputed to be most unrelenting and persistent. 
While on his way to Damascus on one of these errands 
he was brought to a reaHzation of the wickedness of the 
course that he was pursuing, and this changed the whole 
course of his life. In accordance with St. Paul's own 
statement of the fact of his conversion, it occurred and 
took place in this manner: While he and two or three 
of his companions were going along the Damascus road 
there appeared in the heavens a great Hght, the bril- 
liancy of which was much greater than the noonday sun. 



268 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

and St. Paul heard the voice of the Savior saying unto 
him, *'Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? It is hard 
for thee to kick against the pricks." And St. Paul says 
that he said in answering to the voice, **Who art thou, 
Lord?" And He said, *'I am Jesus, whom thou per- 
secutest." When this conversation had taken place, they 
had all of them fallen to the ground, for the reason that 
the brightness, as he says, of the light that shone about 
them was so great, penetrating, and intense that they 
could not look upon it, and St. Paul was stricken bHnd. 
His sight did not come to him until restored in a man- 
ner that we will hereinafter show. The voice ordered 
them to stand upon their feet, saying: " I have appeared 
unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and 
a witness both of these things which thou hast seen and 
of those things in the which I will appear unto thee; de- 
livering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, 
unto whom now I send thee, to open their eyes, and to 
turn them from darkness to light, and from the power 
of Satan [sin] unto God, that they may receive for- 
giveness of sins and inheritance among them which 
are sanctified by faith that is in me." Saul, as then 
called, was taken into the city of Damascus, unto 
the house of a man called Judas, who was located in 
the street called Straight. When in that place Saul did 
not receive his sight for three days, and then the angel 
of the Lord sent Ananias to this place, and ordered him 
to bring back Saul's sight and instruct him as to what 
all this had taken place for, and to give St. Paul his 
instructions as to what he should do and for whom it 
was done. This man Ananias hesitated to go and do 
the things that he had been instructed to do, for the 
reason that he had heard of this notorious man Saul; 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 269 

how that he had a commission of the great high priest 
from the Jewish Sanhedrim to apprehend all the Chris- 
tian followers and punish them, and many persecutions 
had taken place; but the Lord insisted that he should 
go, for this man Saul was now a chosen vessel unto the 
Lord to carry the Lord's name and religion unto the 
Gentiles and kings and the Children of Israel, for the 
Lord would show him what great things he must suffer 
for His name's sake. So Ananias went in unto Saul and 
told him that the Lord Jesus Christ had sent him to 
bring back his sight, and that he would be filled with 
the Holy Ghost, which was done accordingly, and Saul 
received his sight, and was ordered to arise, and was 
taken and immediately baptized. There and then at 
that time Saul commenced to preach to the Gentiles 
and other people Jesus Christ, and Him crucified, and 
firmly with great zeal, declaring that the Savior had 
risen from the dead. Saul convinced the people in Da- 
mascus that Jesus was the very Christ, and not long 
thereafter the Jews conspired to kill St. Paul. 

You diligently search the Scriptures which contain 
the fourteen Epistles of St. Paul, only one of which has 
ever been put in question but that he was the author; 
this is the Epistle to the Hebrews, and it has been in- 
timated by some of the theological historians that this 
Epistle was written from Alexandria by ApoUos. Howev- 
er, there can be no question but that St. Paul was the 
author of every word in this Epistle to the Hebrews. 
After he had written or directed its contents to 
some other persons, it undoubtedly was placed in the 
hands of ApoUos to present to the Hebrews, for the 
reason that Apollos was a converted Hebrew and was 
performing great labor and work in bringing the Hebrews 
to the Christian rehgion at that time. St. Paul un- 



270 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

doubtedly wrote this Epistle to aid and assist him in his 
wonderful work. Paul himself says, "I have planted, 
Apollos watered," which shows that Paul undoubtedly 
produced this Epistle and Apollos received it to spread 
its influence among the Children of Israel to bring them 
to the Savior's cause. Paul knew at the time he wrote 
the Epistle that if he attached his name to it in any 
way, its power and efficiency would be taken from it, 
for the Jews had already acquired great hatred and dis- 
like to St. Paul on account of his power in overcoming 
their reHgion (having sought to take his life from him), 
and on account of the further fact that they regarded 
Paul, not as a messenger sent by God to them, if he 
was a messenger sent, but as a messenger sent by God 
to the Gentiles to spread the Christian faith throughout 
the Gentile race. Further Saint Peter was the Apos- 
tle who was to labor with the Children of Israel, 
and not Paul, and Peter and Paul had been at va- 
riance in regard to some of the Christian doctrine or 
faith relative to bringing the Children of Israel and the 
Gentiles into one common faith, both being able to re- 
ceive the Christian reHgion in the same devout spirit 
that Christ intended they should. 

When you come to survey the life and labors and 
travels of this wonderful Apostle, St. Paul, you see what 
condition he was in prior to the time of his conversion, 
being fully arrayed against the new superstition and 
reHgion that was seeking to overthrow the reHgion of 
the Jews laid down by the prophets of old, and 
adhered to with great tenacity of purpose for cent- 
uries. This young man, fuUy imbued with this faith 
and spirit, being highly educated under one of the 
greatest reHgious masters that all history gives, who 
lived among the Jewish people (GamaHel, a Jewish 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 271 

rabbi), was inspired or brought by his zeal against 
the Christian faith to go along with the company who 
took the life of the sainted Stephen. On account of 
the zeal which he had shown for the faith of the 
Jews, the high Jewish rabbi of the Sanhedrim clothed 
him with the power of a commission to go out all 
around throughout the country, without any limit of 
power, and apprehend and bring to justice all the dis- 
senters from the Jewish rehgion who were following after 
the man Christ and His rehgion. With Paul's tenacity 
of purpose, and the pride associated with the official 
position which the young Hebrew had possessed, he 
would certainly adhere to his office, unless some- 
thing most marvelous should come to him to make him 
change his course and abandon the rehgion of his fathers, 
which was the most popular then in that country, and 
espouse the religion that was very unpopular and advo- 
cated and advanced by a people that were looked down 
upon as of the lowest class and only few in numbers. 
Saul must have known that in doing this he would sac- 
rifice his reputation, his property, and his futiu'e pros- 
pects for all honors, so far as the situation then would 
or could look to a considerate and wise man of the world. 
In the face of all this, he turned right about and 
commenced his labors and efforts in behalf of this 
down-trodden class, who were following after the Lord 
Jesus Christ, with greater zeal than he had ever followed 
the faith of his fathers. In so doing he suffered tribu- 
lations and trials, persecution and death the most ig- 
nominious. For he says himself: "Being defamed, we 
intreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and are 
the offscouring of all things unto this day." And in 
further speaking of his life he says: **Are they min- 



272 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

isters of Christ? I am more; in labors more abundant^ 
in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in 
deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty 
stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was 
I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day 
I have been in the deep ; in jouirneyings often, in perils of 
waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own country- 
men, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in 
perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils 
among false brethren; in weariness and painfulness, in 
watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, 
in cold and nakedness.'* At Ephesus he was compelled 
to contend with the wild beasts in the arena. In fact, 
his life was sought on every hand, in almost every kind 
of manner, by dijfferent people, and there can be no 
question of doubt but that his tribulations and trials 
and sufferings up to and including his death, when he 
was destroyed at Rome, were the greatest that history 
records of any man being -compelled to pass through. 
Notwithstanding the great afflictions and tribulations 
that came to this great and good man, who was an 
Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, he continually pressed 
forward with great determination and zeal, saying that 
he was ready and wilHng at all times to offer up his life 
as a sacrifice that his people and the world might be 
brought to a full knowledge of the love of Jesus Christ 
and the great promise of eternal life to all them that 
would hear His voice and adhere to His teachings, set- 
ing forth the great fact that *'God so loved the world 
that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever 
should believe in him should not perish, but have ever- 
lasting life." 

When we survey the situation, it would seem that 
all those at this present time who are earnestly seeking 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 273 

for a better world would be easily convinced of the gen- 
uineness of the Christian religion, and of the great truths 
brought to man by it, and men and women would be 
found rushing to espouse its cause as though they were 
fleeing from destruction to a great refuge. 

When St. Paul was arraigned before the council for 
trial, he said: ''Men and brethren, I have lived in 
all good conscience before God until this day." And 
the high priest ordered the officers who stood by him 
to smite him on the mouth. And Paul said to the 
high priest: **God shall smite thee, thou whited wall: 
for sittest thou to judge me after the law, and com- 
mandest me to be smitten contrary to the law?" And 
they were astounded, and said to him: *' Re vilest thou 
God's high priest?" Paul explained that he knew not 
that it was the high priest, for the teaching from his 
Master was, ''Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of 
thy people." 

The night following after this took place the Ivord 
stood beside Paul in a vision and encouraged him, tell- 
ing him: "Be of good cheer, Paul: for as thou hast 
testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness, 
also at Rome." 

When Paul v/as brought before the governor Felix, 
and Felix heard the things charged against him, he then 
set a time when he would hear Paul and permit him to 
talk for himself; and Felix came with his wife Drusilla, 
who was a Jewess, and he sent for Paul, and Paul deemed 
it a great privilege to be permitted to come before Felix 
and talk to him, because he knew that he was a judge 
of all the law^s and he would be more Hkely to obtain 
justice from one who fully understood the law. 

Agrippa said unto Festus, "I should also be pleased 
to hear the man myself." And Festus said, "On the 



274 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

morrow thou shalt hear him." And on the morrow 
Agrippa was come, and Bemice, with great pomp, and 
was entered into the place of hearing with the chief 
captains and principal men of the city. Festus com- 
manded that Paul be brought before them; after which 
Paul related the manner of his life, claiming that it had 
been rendered unto God and unto man in all good con- 
science, and did not deny that he was an ambassador of 
Jesus Christ, and fully related to them his miraculous 
conversion. He then set before them the faith that was 
in him, claiming that Jesus Christ should suffer and 
should be the first that should rise from the dead, and 
should show Hght unto the people of the Gentiles. And 
when he set forth these facts himself with such force and 
convincing power, Festus was heard to say with a loud 
voice: "Paul, thou art beside thyself; much learning 
doth make thee mad." Paul said: "I am not mad, 
most noble Festus; but speak forth the words of truth 
and soberness. For the king knoweth of these things, 
before whom also I speak freely: for I am persuaded 
that none of these things are hidden from him; for 
this thing was not done in a comer." Paul questioned 
him, asking him, ''BeHevest thou the prophets?" and 
then said, ''I know that thou believest." Agrippa, be- 
coming convinced of his erroneous position and attitude, 
as it were, said unto Paul: ''Almost thou persuadest 
me to be a Christian." Paul exclaimed in his gladness 
of heart: **I would to God that not only thou, but also 
all that hear me this day, were both almost and alto- 
gether such as I am, except these bonds." The king 
and his wife and others of his associates at once declared 
that Paul had done nothing which made him guilty or 
worthy of death, or even the bonds which he was then in. 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 275 

and would have set him free had it not been that Paul 
had appealed to Caesar. 

This you can see had to take place and was a fulfill- 
ment of the revelation to Paul about his testimony in 
Jerusalem, and that he would be compelled to testify 
for the Ivord Jesus at Rome. How can you doubt the 
life of St. Paul and his work for the cross of Jesus Christ 
and for saving and bringing the world to the precious 
doctrine which the I/)rd has left to humanity? The 
record of St. Paul never has been successfully disputed, 
nor can it, for without any question all the statements 
pertaining to his work and life are true, so that it has 
been so much so that very few have ever attempted in 
the least to bring it into question; so that if these things 
that are related of him are perfectly true and reliable, 
can you, when you minutely and carefully go into all 
the details of this most wonderful man's great career, 
doubt for one moment but that everything related by 
him can be received as the truth? Here you see a man 
filled with the Holy Ghost standing before all the world 
proclaiming the whole law of God to be true and the 
only way whereby mankind will ever be able to reap 
the great promise of eternal life. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

POLYCARP. 

Authentic history states that Polycarp, who was bish- 
op of Smyrna, was born in the year A. D. 70; for it is 
authoritatively shown and asserted without any reason- 
able question of doubt that he was martyred or put to 
death in Smyrna not later than A. D. 156. At the time 



276 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

that Polycarp was put to the torture, it was demanded 
of him by his persecutors that he deny and curse his 
Lord, Jesus Christ; then and there, in his refusal to do 
so, Polycarp explained with great firmness that he had 
served his Lord and Master for now eighty and six years, 
and that his Savior had brought to him nothing but 
good, "and how can I deny Him?" This reference to 
the time of service was no doubt the whole period of 
Polycarp 's life. Polycarp is looked upon as one of the 
greatest of the Christian fathers, for the reason of his 
great loyalty to the Lord Jesus Christ and the church 
that the Savior established while with the world. Not 
only that, but Polycarp 's life covers the full period from 
the life of the last living Apostle, St. John, to a full and 
complete history of all the Christian religion up through 
all the centuries to the present day, showing a complete 
and authentic line of proof of its genuineness. For St. 
John died after about A. D. 98 or A. D. 100, which would 
make Polycarp 's age at the time of the death of St. 
John about twenty-six or twenty-eight years. At the 
time of Polycarp 's martyrdom, when he was interro- 
gated by his persecutors as to v/ho he was, he said to 
them: ''If you would know who that I am, I will tell 
you kindly. I am a Christian." At these words the 
populace cried out that he should die at the stake, and 
hastened to bring fuel. Polycarp refused to be fastened 
or tied in any way and met his fate with fortitude and 
calmness. 

Polycarp wrote several very able sermons and epis- 
tles, all of which are now lost except a short epistle to 
the PhiHppians and some other numerous letters to 
friends in the Christian faith. They are considered very 
valuable as a means of proof, by their use in establish- 
ing the spiritual phraseology and the authenticity of 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 



277 



the most cf the books of the New Testament. They 
were read in the churches of Asia during the life and 
time of Jerome. Polycarp was educated at the expense 
of CapHsto, a noble Christian lady of Smyrna, who 
became a disciple of St. John the Evangelist, and who 
on the death of Bucolus consecrated him to the bishop- 
ric of his native city. During the controversy about 
the celebration of Easter he went to consult Anticetus, 
bishop of Rome, against whom he defended the practice 
of the Eastern Church, and he distinguished himself 
while at Rome by his opposition to the Marceian and 
Valentinian heresies. During the persecution of Marcus 
Aurelius he was brought before the Roman proconsul 
at Smyrna and condemned to death. 

St. Irenaeus, who was bom near the city of Smyrna 
about the year A. D. 135, died in the city of Lyons 
about A. D. 202. In a letter to the Valentinian Florinus, 
Irenaeus reminds him of their both having been disciples 
of Polycarp (that he also studied with Papias, according 
to the writings at Rome). Irenaeus no doubt accom- 
panied Paphinus into Gaul, and was ordained priest by 
him and labored under him among the Greek colonies 
on the Rhone. In the beginning of A. D. 177 he was 
sent to Rome by the chiu-ch of Lyons and Vienna to 
consult Pope Eleutherus about the spread of the Mon- 
tanistic doctrine, and was while there elected and con- 
secrated bishop of Lyons. In the controversy relating 
to the celebration of Easter, Irenaeus acted as mediator 
between the Eastern bishop and Pope Victor the First. 
About A. D. 181 he published in five books "Ad versus 
Haereses," which is considered the most valuable relic 
of early patristic literature of the original Greek. Only 
the greater part of the first book has been received 
in the writings of Epiphenius and of Hippolytus, who 



278 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

♦ 

were pupils of Irenaeus, but the existing Latin version 
of five books is very ancient and perhaps contemporary 
with the author. Some other Greek fragments of other 
compositions have been attributed to him. The first 
edition of his works is that of Erasmus (Basel, 1526; 
frequently republished) . 

The following is a remonstrance addressed by Ire- 
naeus to his former associate after his deflection or fall- 
ing away from his first faith: "These opinions, Flori- 
nus, that I may speak without harshness, are not of 
sound and considerate judgment. These opinions are 
not in harmony with the church, but involve those 
adopting them in the greatest of impiety. These opin- 
ions even the heretics, outside the pale of the church, 
never ventured to broach. These opinions the elders 
before us, who also were disciples of the Apostles, did 
not hand down to thee; for I saw thee when I was 
still a boy in Luver, Asia, in company with Polycarp, 
while thou wast faring prosperously in the regal court 
and endeavoring to stand well with him, for I dis- 
tinctly remember the incidents of that time better 
than even those of recent occurrence, for the lessons 
received in childhood, growing with the growth of the 
soul, become identified with it, so that I can describe 
the very place in which the blessed Polycarp used to 
sit when he discomrsed, and his goings out and his com- 
ings in, and his manner of Hfe, and his personal appear- 
ance, and the discourses which he held before the people, 
and how he would describe his intercourse with St. John 
and with the rest who had seen the Lord, and how he 
would relate their works and whatsoever things he had 
heard from them about the Lord and about His mir- 
acles, and also about His teaching Polycarp as having 
received them from eye-witnesses of the life of the Word 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 279 

[as the Assyriac translation has it, ** those who saw with 
their eyes the Living Word"], would relate together in 
accordance with the Scriptures. To these discourses I 
used to listen at the time with a tension by God's mercy 
which was bestowed upon me, noting them down, not 
on paper, but in my heart, and by the grace of God I 
constantly ruminate upon them faithfully; and I can 
testify to them in the sight of God that if the blessed 
and apostoHc elder had heard anything of this kind, he 
would have cried out and stopped and said after his 
word, 'O good God, for what times hast Thou kept me 
that I should endure such things?' and would even have 
fled from the presence where he was sitting or standing 
when he heard such words. And indeed this can be 
shown from his letters which he wrote either to the 
neighboring chiurches for their confirmation or to certain 
of the brethren for their warning and exhortation." 

Polycarp died about A. D. 158 and Irenaeus became 
bishop of Lyons in A. D. 177; putting these facts to- 
gether, Irenaeus must have been a pupil of Polycarp 
about the year 135 to 150. Florinus was at one time a 
presbyter of the church of Rome, as before stated, and 
must have fallen into heresy with the church and taught 
other doctrines than the Christian religion which the 
apostoHc Fathers taught and adhered to, and this no 
doubt was what caused Irenaeus to write the foregoing 
letters to him. We have a good reason to beheve this 
letter was one of the earliest writings of Irenaeus, but 
the exact age of the letter as set out by the historian 
when he was a pupil of Polycarp it is impossible to 
ascertain. 

Growing out of the visit of Irenaeus to Rome, where 
he says these heresies were coming into the true church 
as left by the immediate followers of our Lord and Mas- 



28o MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

ter, Polycarp being the chief exponent of them in his 
time, and Irenaeus knowing with what truthfulness Poly- 
carp had preserved them and handed them down to 
him, Irenaeus wrote another letter, which we will set out 
here: "And so it was with Polycarp also, who not only 
was taught by Apostles and Hved in familiar intercourse 
with many that had seen Christ, but also received his 
appointment in Asia from Apostles as bishop in the 
church of Smyrna, v/hom we too have seen in our youth, 
for he served long and departed this life at a very great 
age by a glorious and most notable martyrdom, having 
even taught these very things which he hath learned 
from the Apostles, which the church hands down and 
which alone are true. To these testimony is borne by 
all the churches in Asia and by the successors of Poly- 
carp up to the present time, who was a much more 
trustworthy and safe witness of the truth than Valen- 
tinus and Marceon and all such wrong-minded men. 
He, also, when on a visit to Rome in the days of Ene- 
cetus, converted many to the church of God, following 
the forenamed heretics, by preaching that he had re- 
ceived from the Apostles this doctrine and this only, 
which was handed down by the church as a truth, and 
there are those who have heard him tell how St. John, 
the disciple of the Lord, when he went to take a bath 
in Ephesus and saw Corinthus within, rushed away from 
the room without bathing, with the words: Xet us flee, 
lest the room should indeed fall in. Corinthus, the en- 
emy of the truth, is within.' Yes, and Polycarp him- 
self also, on one occasion when Marceon confronted him 
and said, 'Dost thou recognize me?' answered, *I recog- 
nize thee, firstborn of Satan.' Such care did the Apostles 
and their disciples take not to hold any communication 
even by word with any of those who willfully and mali- 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 281 



ciously falsified the truth; as Paul also said, *A man 
that is a heretic, after a first and second admonition 
avoid, knowing that such an one is perverted and sinneth, 
being self -condemned.'" 

Moreover, there is an epistle of Polycarp addressed 
to the Phihppians, which is most adequate, and from 
which both his manner of life and his preaching of the 
truth may be learned by those who desire to learn a ad 
are anxious for their own salvation. And again, the 
church in Ephesus, which was founded by St. Paul and 
St. John, and where St. John served till the time of 
Irenaeus, is a true witness of the tradition coming down 
to us from the Apostles. 

What a glorious testimony we have from this sainted 
Christian, Polycarp, of the Hfe of St. John, coming to 
us with such accuracy of truth through those after him 
who have no other object in view except to bring down 
to the world the truths set forth by their Savior and es- 
tabHsh them in the hearts of the subsequent generations, 
so that the way to eternal life might be easy of access 
to the wanderer who is inquiring the way. The testi- 
mony of Polycarp furnishes a complete chain down from 
the Apostles to all the following generations. The place 
of btnial of Polycarp is at this present time kept up, 
with a monument erected that marks the site where his 
ashes were supposed to be laid away. Reviewing this 
short statement of this great and good man, it reveals 
to us what a splendid testimony is shown by his life, 
being so closely connected with the beloved Apostle, St. 
John, and then his so steadfastly adhering to the in- 
structions which he had received from that beloved 
Apostle. This no doubt should have a very gratify- 
ing and consoHng effect, as well as bolstering up and 
strengthening the faith of all people who are diligently 



282 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

searching and seeking for a better home and eternal life^ 
which has been promised by Him who so loved the world. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

EusEBius Pamphili's Statement about Jesus. 

Eusebius Pamphili, one of the most quoted and early 
ecclesiastical writers of the church, was bom in Pales- 
tine about A. D. 265, and died about A. D. 340. There 
is little known of his youth, save that he began his 
studies in Antioch, then visited the Thebaid, where he 
spent some time in completing his knowledge of the 
Scriptures and theology, after which he opened a school 
at Csesarea. A splendid library founded or much en- 
larged by Bishop Pamphilus, his protector, enabled Eu- 
sebius to collect vast treasiures of erudition. In the per- 
secution of Diocletian (A. D. 303) he fled from the city, 
but soon returned for the purpose of administering to 
the wants of Pamphilus, who had been cast into prison 
and was in A. D. 309 put to death. Eusebius assumed 
his name in memory of their friendship. Paulinus, bishop 
of Tyre, next gave him an asylum, but persecution drove 
him into Egypt, where he suffered imprisonment until 
the abdication of Diocletian set him free and allowed 
him to rettun to Csesarea, of whose church he became 
bishop in 315. At the Council of Nice, which convened 
on or about May 20, A. D. 325, and closed August 25 
(this was to settle questions of different views of theol- 
ogy, one of which was the proper time to celebrate Eas- 
ter), the Emperor Constantine had Eusebius sit at his 
right hand and make the first draft of the Nicene creed. 
He subscribed on the solemn profession of faith in the 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 283 

divinity of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and the Nicene 
Council determined these words, ''Very God of Very 
God; begotten and not made; being of one substance 
with the Father," with a reservation founded on a com- 
parison of the eternal birth of the Logos with a temporal 
birth of the incarnate Word. 

Eusebius wrote many books upon different views of 
the Scripture. The most noted were five books on the 
Incarnation; six in defence of Origen and his works, in 
the translation of his work in ten books. It shows that 
he sets out among evidences of the truthfulness of the 
history of the estabHshment of the chiu-ch by the Lord 
Jesus Christ, as well as establishing the Lord's divine 
mission by giving the incidents and works of all the 
Christian Fathers. They also denounced the heresy of 
the doctrine that there was a time when the Son of God 
did not exist and was not co-eternal with the Father. 
Some writers claim that Eusebius did not subscribe to 
the doctrine of the Nicene Council, but this is certainly 
not true, for Eusebius, after these charges were made^ 
sent a letter professing that he had embraced the faith 
which had been pubHshed in the Nicene Council. We 
find in Eusebius, book one, chapter 2, where is given, 
as he calls it, a summary view of the pre-existence and 
divinity of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. As the 
mode of existence in Christ is twofold: the one resem- 
bling the head of the body, indicating His divinity; the 
other compared to the feet, by which He for the sake 
of our salvation assumed the nature which is subject 
to the same infirmities with ourselves. Hence our ac- 
count of the subsequent matter may be rendered com- 
plete and perfect by commencing with the principal and 
most important points in history. By this method at 
the same time the antiquity and the divine dignity of 



284 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

the Christian name will be exhibited to those who sup- 
pose it a recent and foreign production that sprang into 
existence but yesterday and was never known before. 
No language then is sufficient to express the origin, the 
dignity, even the substance and nature of Christ, whence 
even the Divine Spirit in the prophecies says, "Who will 
declare His generation?" For as no one has known the 
Father but the Son, so no one, on the other hand, can 
know the Son fully but the Father alone, by whom He 
was begotten; for who but the Father hath thoroughly 
understood that Hght which existed before the world 
was; that intellectual and substantial wisdom and that 
living word, which at the beginning was with the Father 
before all creation and any production, visible or in- 
visible, the first and only offspring of God; the Prince 
and leader of the spiritual and immortality of Heaven; 
the angel of the mighty counsel; the agent to execute 
the Father's secret will; the maker of all things with 
the Father; the second cause of the universe, next to 
the Father; the true and only Son of the Father; and 
the Lord and God and King of all created things, who 
has received power and dominion with divinity itself 
and power and honor from the Father? All this is evi- 
dent from these more abstruse passages in reference to 
His divinity: *'In the beginning was the Word, and the 
Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things 
were made by him, and without him there was nothing 
made." These two we are taught by the great Moses, 
the most ancient of all prophets, when under the influ- 
ence of the Divine Spirit he described the creation and 
arrangement of all things. He also informs us that the 
Creator and Maker of the universe yielded to Christ, 
and to none but to His divine and first-begotten Word, 
the formation of all subordinate things, and communed 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 285 

with Him respecting the creation of man; for, says he, 
God said, "Let us make man according to our image 
and according to our Hkeness." This expression is con- 
firmed by another of the prophets, who, discoursing of 
God in his hymns, declares, "He spake and they were 
made; he commanded, and they were created," where 
he introduces the Father and the Maker as the Ruler 
of all, commanding with His sovereign command, but 
the Divine Word as next to Him, the very same that is 
proclaimed to us as ministering to His Father, com- 
mands Him too, all that are said to have excelled in 
righteousness and purity since the creation of man. Mo- 
ses, the eminent servant of God, and Abraham before 
him, the children of the latter, and as many righteous 
prophets as subsequently appeared, contemplated with 
the pure eyes of the mind and recognized and gave Him 
the worship that was due as a Son of God. The Son 
himself, however, by no means indifferent to the wor- 
ship of the Father, is appointed to teach the knowledge 
of the Father to all. 

The Lord God therefore appeared as a common man 
to Abraham, while sitting at the Ark of the Covenant, 
and he immediately falling down, although he plainly 
saw a man with his eyes, nevertheless worshiped Him 
as a God and entreated Him as a Lord. He confesses 
too that he is not ignorant who He is in the words, 
"Lord, the Judge of all the earth, wilt not thou judge 
righteously?" for, as it were wholly unreasonable to 
suppose the uncreated and unchangeable substance of 
the Almighty God to be changed into the form of man 
as to deceive the eyes of beholders with phantom of any 
creative substance, so also it is unreasonable to suppose 
that the Scriptures have falsely invented such things as 
these, God and the Lord who is Judge of the whole earth 



286 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

and executeth judgment, appearing in the shape of a man, 
Who also can be called, if it be not lawful to call Him, the 
Author of the Universe, than His only pre-existing Word, 
concerning Whom also in the Psalms it is said, "He sent 
liis Word and healed them, and delivered them from 
their corruption." Of Him Moses devoutly speaks as 
the second after the Father, when He says: "The I^ord 
rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire 
from the Lord." He also appeared to Jacob in the form 
of a man. The sacred Scriptures called by the name of 
God, saying to Jacob, "Thy name shall no longer be called 
Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name, because thou hast 
prevailed with God." Whence also Jacob called the 
name of the place the vision of God, saying, "I have 
seen God face to face, and my soul has lived too." Sup- 
pose these divine appearances in the forms of subordi- 
nate angels and servants of God are inadmissible, since 
as often as any of these appeared to man, the Scriptures 
do not conceal the fact in the name, expressly saying that 
they were called not God nor Lord, but angels, as would 
be easy to prove by thousands of references. Joshua 
also, the successor of Moses, calls Him the Ruler of ce- 
lestial angels and archangels of supernal powers, and as 
the power and wisdom of God entrusted with the second 
rank of sovereignty and ruler over all; the Captain of 
the Lord's hosts; although he saw Him only in the form 
and shape of man, for thus it is written: "And it came 
to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up 
his eyes and looked, and, behold, there stood a man over 
against him with his sword drawn in his hand: and 
Joshua went unto him, and said unto him. Art thou for 
us or for our adversaries? And he said, Nay; but as 
captain of the host of the Lord am I now come. And 
Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and 



MORTALS AND IIMMORTAUTY. 287 

said unto him, What saith my lord unto his servant? 
And the "captain of the Lord's host said unto Joshua, 
Loose thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon 
thou standest is holy." Here then you will perceive from 
the words themselves that this is no other than the one 
that also communicated with Moses, since the Scriptures 
in the same Word and in reference to the same one say : 
"When the Lord saw that he drew near to see, the Lord 
called unto him from the midst of the bush, saying, 
Moses, Moses. And he answered, Here am I. And he 
said. Draw not nearer; loose the shoes from off thy feet, 
for the place on which thou standest is holy ground. 
And he said to him, I am the God of thy father, the 
God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of 
Jacob." 

That there is also a certain antemundane and self- 
existing substance ministering to the Father and God 
of all unto the formation of all created objects, called 
the Word and Wisdom of God, besides the proofs already 
advanced, we may also learn from the very words of 
Wisdom speaking of Himself in the clearest manner 
through Solomon, and thus initiating us into her mys- 
teries. Proverbs 8: ''I wisdom make my habitation 
with prudence and knowledge, and have called to under- 
standing. By me kings reign, and princes define justice. 
By me the great are magnified, and rulers subdue the 
earth." To which he subjoins the following: ''The Lord 
created me in the beginning of his way, before his works. 
Before the world he established me, before the formation 
of the earth; before the waters came from their founda- 
tion, before the foundation was a mountain, before all 
hills, he brought me forth. When he prepared the heav- 
ens, I was present with him; and when he established 
the foundation under the heavens, I was with him ad- 



288 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

justing them. I was his deHght daily; I exulted before 
him at all times, when he reposed that he had com- 
pleted the world." 

That the Divine Word therefore pre-existed and ap- 
peared, if not to all, at least to some, had been thus 
briefly shown of the Greek fragments quoted by Anas- 
tasius of Sinai, as from the third book on the Incarnation 
of Jesus Christ, is shown as follows: "Things done by 
Jesus Christ after His baptism, and . especially the mir- 
acles, signs, showed His Godhead concealed in the flesh 
and assured the world of it ; for, being perfect God and 
perfect man at the same time, He assures us of His two 
essences of His Godhead by miracles in the three years 
after His baptism and of His manhood in the thirty 
seasons before His baptism, during which, owing to His 
mortality as regards the flesh, He concealed the signs 
of His Godhead, although He was true God from eter- 
nity." The above was wi'itten during the early part of 
the second century by Melito, from A. D. 149 to 158. 
The same author: ** Concerning our Lord and Savior 
we have made collections from the law and the prophets, 
relative to those things which are declared concerning 
our Lord Jesus Christ, that we might prove to your love 
that He is the perfect ransom ; the Word of God, who 
was begotten before the light, who v/as created together 
with the Father in all; who among the patriarchs was 
Patriarch; who in the law among the priests was the 
Chief Priest, the angels' Archangel; among the voices, 
the Word; among the spirits, the Spirit; in the Father, 
the Son ; in God, God ; the King for ever and ever. For 
this is He who was pilot to Noah; who conducted Abra- 
ham; who was found v/ith Isaac; who was in exile with 
Jacob; who was sold with Joseph; who was captain 
with Moses; who was divider of the inheritance with. 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 289 

Joshua the son of Nun; who foretold His own sufferings 
in David and the prophets; who was incarnate in the 
Virgin; who was born in Bethlehem; who was worshiped 
in swaddling-clothes in a manger; who was seen by the 
shepherds; who was glorified of the angels; who was 
worshiped by the Magi; who was pointed out by John; 
who gathered together the apostates; who preached the 
kingdom; who healed the maimed; who gave light to 
the blind; who raised the dead; who appeared in the 
temple; who was not believed upon by the people; who 
was betrayed by Judas; who was transfixed in the flesh; 
who was hanged upon the tree; who was buried in the 
earth; who arose from the dead; who appeared to the 
Apostles; who ascended into heaven; who sitteth at 
the right hand of God the Father; who is the rest of 
those that are confiding; who is the rescue of them that 
are lost; the light of those that are in darkness; the de- 
liverer of those that are captives; the guard of those 
that have gone astray; the refuge of the afflicted; the 
Bridegroom of the church; the Captain of the angels; 
God who is of God; the Son who is of the Father; Jesus 
Christ the King for ever and ever." 

The foregoing has been set out and inserted herein 
for the benefit of the readers in order to show how the 
best theologians interpreted the meaning of the I^ord's 
words concerning Himself as to who He was. Let us 
observe what the I^ord Jesus Christ claimed and as- 
sumed Himself as to who He was. First of all, He 
claimed that God, Who made all things, was His Father; 
also His Father said that He so loved the world (mean- 
ing mankind) that He gave His only begotten Son, that 
whosoever beheveth on Him shall not perish, but have 
everlasting life. And then again: '*In the beginning 
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the 



290 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

Word was God. The same was in the beginning with 
God. ... In him was hfe; and the Ufe was 
the Hght of men. And the Hght shineth in darkness; 
and the darkness comprehended it not." (John 1:1-5.) 
''For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, 
and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they 
be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: 
all things were created by him and for him." (Col. i: 
16.) ''God, who at sundry times and in divers manners 
spake in time past unto the fathers *by the prophets, 
hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom 
he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he 
made the worlds; who being the brightness of his glory, 
and the express image of his person, and upholding all 
things by the word of his power, when he had by himself 
purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Maj- 
esty on high." (Heb. 1:1-3.) **For as the Father raiseth 
up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son 
quickeneth whom he will. For the Father judgeth no 
man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son: 
that all men should honour the Son, even as they honour 
the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth 
not the Father which hath sent him." (John 5:21-23.) 
"I and my Father are one. . . . If I do not 
the works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do, 
though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye 
may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and 
I in him." (John 10:30, 37-38.) "All things that the 
Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall 
take of mine, and shall shew it unto you." (John 16: 
15.) "Who, being in the form of God, thought it not 
robbery to be equal with God." (Phil. 2:6.) Now God 
himself, our Father, and our I/ord Jesus Christ direct 
our way unto Him. 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 291 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

Saint Ignatius. 

This man, who was sumamed Theopharus, lived at 
Antioch and was one of the primitive Christian Fath- 
ers of the church. It is related afnd reported with a de- 
gree of certainty that he died December 20, A. D. 107, 
at Rome, yet it has been maintained by some that his 
death probably took place at Antioch; others denom- 
inate him as one of the apostolic Fathers. Eusebius says 
that he was appointed bishop of Antioch in A. D. 69. 
Baronius and Natalis Alexander make him bishop of the 
Gentile Christians residing in that city; Evodius being 
at the same time bishop of thje Jewish converts. The 
''Martyrium Ignatii," which, prbfesses to have been writ- 
ten by an eye-witness of his martyrdom, afiirms that he 
was a disciple of St. John and ordained by the Apostles 
themselves. After having watched over the steadfast- 
ness of his flock dming the persecution of Domitian, he 
was condemned by Trajan to be thrown to the wild 
beasts in the Roman amphitheater, where, according to 
the "Martyrium Ignatii," he. suffered. The Greeks cel- 
ebrate his feast on December 20th and the Latins on 
February ist. 

During his journey to Rome, Ignatius wrote seven 
epistles, all of which have been enumerated by Eusebius 
and Jerome. They were addressed to the Romans, to 
Polycarp, and to various Asiatic churches. There are 
now about fifteen letters extant ascribed to Ignatius. 
The seven mentioned by Eusebius, according to the 
shorter Greek recension, are generally accepted as gen- 
uine. We will here mention some of the contents of the 



292 MUKTAlvb AJND IMMUKTALiTY. 

letters by Eusebius. During those times that Ignatius 
was occupying the bishopric at Antioch, Polycarp was 
stationed at Smyrna and Papias was at Heriopolis, both 
of which were well skilled in all learning. Ignatius was 
celebrated and asserted by many to be the successor of 
Peter at Antioch; at all events, it appears he was the 
second that obtained the episcopal office there. History 
says that he was sent away from Syria to Rome, and 
was there cast to the wild beasts for food on account 
of his testimony to the Lord Jesus Christ; that he was 
carried through Asia by officers under the most rigid 
custody, and all the different churches where he stopped 
were fortified and guarded; that at these churches he 
dehvered discourses and exhortations, particularly to cau- 
tion them more against the heresies which even then 
were springing up, and seemed to be somewhat prevail- 
ing. He exhorted them to adhere firmly to the doctrine 
of the Apostles, and, for the sake of greater sectuity, he 
deemed it necessary to attest his warnings by putting 
them into writing. Therefore when he came to Smyrna, 
where Polycarp was, he wrote one epistle to the church 
of Ephesus, in which he mentions its pastor, Onesimus; 
another also to the church in Magnesia, which is situated 
on the Meander, in which again he makes mention of 
Damas, the bishop; another also to the church of Tral- 
lians, of which he states that Polybius was their bishop. 
To these must be added the epistles to the church of 
Rome, which also contain an exhortation not to dis- 
appoint him in his ardent hope by refusing to endure 
martyrdom. He writes from Syria to Rome: *'I am 
contending with wild beasts by land and sea, by night 
and day, being tied to ten leopards,'* the number of the 
military band, who even when treated with kindness 
only behaved with greater ferocity; *'but in the midst 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 293 

of these iniquities I am learning, yet I am not justified 
on this account.'* It was his greatest desire to be through 
with his martyrdom, and he hoped that the wild beasts 
would devour him quickly, and not be afraid of him, as 
they had been of some others, whom they would not 
touch, and he asserted that he would force them to 
attack him as soon as possible; "for," says he, *'I know 
it will be to my advantage," for he was willing to make 
any sacrifice in order to gain the Lord Jesus Christ. 
This was written to the many churches through Asia. 
After he left Smyrna, he wrote an exhortation from Troas 
to those in Philadelphia, and particularly to Polycarp, 
who was bishop there, whom he designates as an apos- 
tolical man and as a good and faithful shepherd, com- 
mending the flock of Antioch to him, and requesting him 
to exercise a diligent oversight over the church. In 
writing to the Smyrnans he also penned these words in 
regard to the Lord Jesus Christ: *'I know that He was 
seen after the resurrection, and He said to those that 
came to Peter, 'Take and handle me, and see that I 
am not an incorruptible spirit.* And they touched him 
and believed." Polycarp makes mention of these epis- 
tles in the epistle to the Philadelphians that bears his 
name, in the following words: *'I exhort you therefore 
all to yield obedience and to exercise all the patience 
which you see with your own mind, not only in the 
blessed martyrs Ignatius and Rufus and Zosimus, but 
likewise in others of your fellow-citizens, as also in Paul 
and the other Apostles; being persuaded that all these 
did not run in vain, but in faith and righteousness, and 
that they are gone to the place destined for them by 
the Lord Jesus Christ; for whom also they suffered: for 
they did not love the world that now is, but Him that 
died for us, and that was raised again by God." He 



294 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

promises to send all the letters of Ignatius to Syria, as 
those people would derive great benefit from them, for 
they comprise faith and patience, edification pertaining 
to our I^ord Jesus Christ. 

The writer here insists that the life shown of this man 
certainly shows that he had been one of the disciples 
immediately after Jesus Christ's ascension to Heaven, 
which is proven without doubt by the great fervency of 
spirit and zeal for the Lord Jesus Christ and His doctrine, 
with a yearning desire that it should not perish from 
among the children of men. This fact ought to con- 
vince anyone who is possessed with a proper degree of 
fairness that at heart the writer of these things had been 
with the Lord Jesus Christ in spirit, and his very being 
yearned for the salvation of his fellow-man, and that all 
men should have perceived from them the true doctrine, 
so that they would be following directly in the path that 
their Savior had shown to them; for He particularly 
charges them all not to allow any changes made in the 
doctrine, but to keep it pure, so man would know the 
way of eternal life. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

Justin Martyr. 

This great man was one of the earliest Christian 
Fathers after the apostolic age. He was born at Floria 
NeapoHs in Samaria about A. D. 105, and died in Rome 
about A. D. 165. His parents were Greeks who joined 
the colony sent by Vespasian to the desolate city of Se- 
chem, which was now called after him, Flavia. He was 
educated in the schools of Asia Minor, Greece, and Egypt, 
and he studied first under a Stoic, whose teachings on 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 295 

the nature of God left him unsatisfied ; he then attached 
himself to a Peripatetic, who disgusted him by his greed 
for money; and, unwilling to undertake the mathemat- 
ical course exacted by the Pythagoreans, he finally em- 
braced the Platonic philosophy. The objection raised 
by an aged Christian against its doctrines led him to 
study the Old Testament writings, and the heroism of 
the Christian confessors and martyrs induced him to 
profess Christianity about A. D. 132. 

He wrote many works in defence of the Christian 
religion, and about A. D. 150 he met a Jew named Try- 
phon and had a public discussion, which took place at 
the city of Ephesus. The discussion was on the divinity 
of the Christian religion. He also wrote two letters to 
Marcus Aurelius, pleading with him to put a stop to the 
persecution of the Christians. In the discourse with 
Tryphon, who was one of the most learned Jews of 
his time, and had at his command all the evidence then 
existing relative to Jesus Christ and the religion which 
He left (and the time had been short since St. John 
the Evangelist had died at this city, so that Tryphon 
could bring to his aid and prove what could be con- 
sidered false as to the truth of the doctrine of which 
Justin Martyr was the exponent), Justin Martyr showed 
how unfair and how insidiously they plotted against the 
doctrine of Jesus Christ, and addressed the following 
words: "Tryphon, but you do not only continue im- 
penitent for your evil deeds, but, selecting chosen men, 
you send them from Jerusalem to all the world declaring 
that the infidel sect of Christians had made its appear- 
ance and uttering all those falsehoods against us which 
those that know us not are accustomed to repeat. Thus 
you are the causes of iniquity not only to yourselves, 
but to all others also." Also dming the debate Justin 



296 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

Martyr mentioned many of the gospel facts and appealed 
to the miracles. Tryphon and his four companions ad- 
mitted the truth of the facts, but ridiculed the idea of 
Jesus Christ being born of a virgin woman as absurd, 
and said it is foolish to suppose Jesus Christ is God and 
become man, and he said it is impossible to prove that 
any can be God but the Maker of the world. He denied 
none of the facts, which, as a Jew, he had every facility 
for knowing, with all the history before him as to the 
Savior's life, and could have denied them and shown that 
they were not true and never took place, if he could have 
done so by successfully contradicting them by the histor- 
ical facts, which no doubt were within his immediate 
command. 

Justin Martyr referred to Daniel 7:13 and argued 
from it, but Tryphon replies: ''These prophecies con- 
strain us to accept the Messiah to be great and illustri- 
ous, but he who is called your Christ is without reputa- 
tion and glory, so that he fell under the greatest curse 
of the law of God, for he was crucified." Tryphon tells 
Justin Martyr that in the fables of the Greeks it is said 
that Perseus was born of Varea while a virgin, he who 
is by them called Jupiter having fallen upon her in the 
form of a god. *'Now," says he, *'you who affirm the 
same thing ought to be ashamed, and should rather say 
that this Jesus was man of man." 

Justin Martyr again said and affirmed that the Jews 
knew that Jesus Christ arose from the dead. He adds: 
*'The other nations have not proceeded so far in wicked- 
ness against Jesus Christ as you, who are even to them 
the authors of evil suspicion against that holy Person 
and against us, His disciples; for after you had crucified 
that holy, blameless, and just Person, by whose stripes 
healing has come to all, you approach the Father through 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 297 

Him, when you know that He was risen from the dead 
and ascended unto Heaven, as the prophets foretold 
should happen. You did not only not repent of the 
evil things you had permitted, but all your best and 
learned men did all you could to bring this just Person 
into disrepute all over the earth by using false and fraud- 
ulent accusations against Him and His doctrine." 

When Justin Mart}T showed by the Jews' Scriptures 
that another besides the Father is called God, Tryphon 
said: "You have, my friend, strongly and by many 
passages demonstrated this. It remains that you show 
that this person, according to the will of the Father, 
submitted to become man of a virgin; to be crucified; 
to die; to rise afterwards, and to return to Heaven." 
It would seem that this alon.e would be almost conclu- 
sive evidence that it was impossible for those learned 
Jews to dispute the facts relative to our blessed Lord's 
birth, death on the cross, and ascension into Heaven. 

The reader may go all through the list of every man 
who ever wrote anything against the Christian religion 
during the first three centuries after the Lord Jesus 
Christ was on earth, or who made any public discourses 
in any public assemblies in any way. They did not 
attempt to deny that Jesus Christ did live and did teach 
and estabHsh the Christian religion, as it now exists and 
has come down to us; and the things which have been 
attributed as being His miracles, as well as His death 
and resurrection from the dead and ascending to Heaven 
from Mount Olivet, none attempted to deny, but said that 
all these things that could not be explained were accom- 
plished by deception and magic. 

Eusebius, in his early history (Book 4, chapter 6), 
writes how Justin Martyr, in a discourse against Cres- 
cus, states that Crescus v/as a philosopher and was at- 



298 MORTALS AND IMATORTALTTY. 

tempting to show that the Christian reUgion was false 
doctrine, and all those that followed Christ were de- 
ceived by nothing but an ignorant superstition, and this 
style of calling it an ignorant superstition was in the 
mouth of all of its objectors and dissenters; and Justin 
Martyr said that Crescus was attempting to counteract 
the Christian religion without making any investigation 
of the doctrine of Jesus Christ, and that it was most 
iniquitous in any man, and much worse for him than 
a common man, who for the most part is cautious in 
speaking and bearing false testimony in matters of which 
he does not understand the sublimity. **0r if, under- 
standing, he does those things that he may be thereby 
enabled to lead one to suspect he is not one of them (that 
is, not a Christian), he is so much more base and ne- 
farious, inasmuch as he is enslaved to the vulgar ap- 
plause and an absurd fear. And indeed, when I pro- 
posed certain questions to him in order to ascertain and 
convince him that he really was ignorant, he would beg 
leave that all these things are true. I am preparing to 
repeat them in your presence." When Crescus found 
that the doctrine of the cross was too much for him to 
combat, then it was his purpose to prefer charges against 
the man whose argument and reasoning could not be 
successfully met, as a disturber and an enemy of man- 
kind and the Roman government. 

And you will find that is always the case; wherever 
men in authority fail to meet the argument successfully 
advanced by their adversaries, they then resort to the 
fallacious practice of at once exercising all their other 
powers against them, and in so doing put their adver- 
saries out of the way, so that they can not spread the 
doctrine which can not be successfully combated; and 
this was why (or one of the great reasons) the pagan 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 299 

world put to death so many of Jesus Christ's followers. 
The doctrine and teachings advanced by the Lord Jesus 
Christ could not be successfully confuted or overthrown 
by reasoning, for the eternal principles of righteousness 
and good underlaid them all. This is the course pur- 
sued by all people when they can not sustain themselves 
by their superstitions and ignorant dogmas to which 
reasoning can not be successfully applied; and to make 
their positions more effective, they always inflict upon 
their adversaries and opposers the most cruel, debasing, 
and inhuman treatment that can be inflicted, so as, they 
think, to throw a stigma as well as a fear upon all others, 
so that they may not espouse this doctrine advanced. 
But, notwithstanding these cruelties, the Christians were 
so filled with the Spirit of their God that they endured 
all the vile treatment and torture heaped upon them 
with seeming pleasure to sacrifice their Hves in any way 
for their Creator and King, God the Father, which is in 
Heaven. This is certainly a splendid testimony to the 
truthfulness of the statement that the reHgion of Jesus 
Christ was estabHshed at the time its followers claim for 
it, and that it is authentic. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 
Papias. 

Papias, Irenseus claims, was contemporary with Pol- 
ycarp and a student of Saint John. Papias says: "I 
will not scruple also to give a place for you along with 
my interpretations to everything that I learnt carefully 
and remember carefully in times past from the earhest, 
guaranteeing their truth, for, unlike the many, I did 



300 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

not take pleasure in those who have so very much to 
say about those who teach the truth, nor in those who 
relate foreign commandments, but in those who record 
such as were given from the Lord to the faith and are 
derived from the truth itself. And again, on any occa- 
sion when a person comes in any way who has been a 
follower of the elders, I would inquire about the dis- 
coturses of the elders, who was said by Andrew, by 
Peter, or by Philip, or by Thomas, or by James, or 
by John, or by Matthew, or any other of the Lord's 
disciples, and what Ariston and the elder John, the dis- 
ciples of the Lord, say, for I did not think that I could 
get so much profit from the contents of books as from 
the utterance of a living and abiding voice; further 
stating all that is said by the Christian Fathers. Where, 
then, was the first man placed? In Paradise, plainly, as 
it is written, 'And God planted a Paradise.' And he 
was cast out thence into the world, owing to his dis- 
obedience; wherefore also the elders and disciples of the 
Apostles say that those who were translated were trans- 
lated thither, for Paradise was prepared for righteous 
and inspired men; whither also the Apostle Paul was 
carried; and that they who are translated remained 
there to the end of all things." 

While this may show that Papias was not in com- 
munication with any of the disciples of the Lord, yet 
we can easily beheve that the communications that he 
received were from those who had been direct listeners 
and hearers of our Lord's discourses of men. Where he 
mentions the elder John clearly shows there were two 
Johns in Asia, and there were two tombs in Ephesus, each 
of which bears the same name of John. This would seem 
to clear up the great trouble so many writers have tried 
to show existed in arriving at the true followers of the 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 301 

Bible historians, as to St. John's home and place of death. 

We have also this from Papias, describing an account 
written by St. Mark as follows, and the elder John said 
this also : * ' Mark, having become the interpreter of Peter, 
wrote down accurately everything that he remembered 
without having recorded in order what was either said 
or done by Christ, for whether he did love the I^ord or he 
d'd follow Him. But afterwards, as it is said, attended 
Peter, who adapted his instructions to the needs of his 
hearers, but had no designs of giving the connected ac- 
count of the Lord's oracles or discourses. So then Mark 
made no mistake while he thus wrote down some things 
as he remembered them, for he made it his own care not 
to omit anything that he heard or set down by Paul's 
statement therein." This is set out to show that Papias 
knew that Mark had written his Gospel prior to the age 
when Papias Hved, and would no doubt put it back in 
the first century, when the world had the New Testament. 

The following questions, whether from Papias or from 
Irenaeus, show that they, however, did originate in some 
way so that he was conversant with the New Testament 
sayings and teachings of our blessed Redeemer, the Lord 
Jesus Christ, as a new dispensation brought to us the 
blessings of a heavenly Father and the brotherhood of 
man, which is certainly shown to be in the mind of the 
writer of the following: ''As the elders say, then also 
should they which have been deemed worthy of the 
abode in Heaven go there, while others shall enjoy the 
delights of Paradise, and others shall again possess the 
brightness of the city, for in every place the Savior shall 
be seen according as they shall be worthy to them who 
see Him. They say, moreover, that this is the distinc- 
tion between the inhabitants of them that bring forth 
a hundred-fold and them that bring forth sixty-fold and 



302 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

them that bring forth thirty-fold, of whom the first 
shall be taken up into Heaven, and the second shall 
dwell in Paradise, and the third shall inherit the city; 
and that therefore our Lord has said, 'In my Father's 
house are many mansions,' for all things are of God, 
Who giveth to all their appropriate dwelling according 
to His word, saith that provision is made unto all by 
the Father according as each man is or shall be worthy. 
And this is the banqueting-table, at which those shall 
recline who are called to the marriage, and take part 
in the feast, and the presbyters, the disciples of the 
Apostles, say that these are the arrangements and dis- 
posal of them that are saved, and that they advance 
by such steps, and ascending in the spiral to the Son 
and through the Son to the Father. The Son at length 
yielding His power to the Father, as is said also by the 
Apostle, * For he must reign until he putteth all enemies 
under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed 
is death.' '* Now the writer of this paragraph may have 
injected some of his thoughts into the writing, yet no 
one can deny that the writer was fully familiar with 
the New Testament. This statement has been handed 
down to us by Irenaeus, and can be relied upon, as it 
was presented to him in the light that he has presented 
it to us, and proves almost beyond doubt, when con- 
sidered with other testimony, that our New Testament, 
exactly as we have it to-day, was in existence and used 
before St. John died. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 
Origen. 

In a work of this kind and taking into consideration 
the important things therein contained relative to this 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 303 

subject it is deemed important that a brief statement 
should be made, showing to the ones who peruse this 
work who Origen was; for he was one of the most cele- 
brated Christian Fathers and did more toward main- 
taining and keeping the Christian faith before the world 
probably than any other of its adherents during the 
period of his life, so that without making a short state- 
ment of some of the works of the celebrated Origen 
herein a work of this kind seemingly would be incom- 
plete. Origen's surname was Adamantius, which was 
bestowed upon him by early writers on account of his 
unwearied diligence and ascetic temper. His labors for 
the advancement of the Christian doctrine far excel all 
other of its followers during the early placing of it before 
the world and prior to the Nicene Council. 

He was born in Alexandria, Egypt, A. D. 185, and 
died in Tyre in A. D. 254. His father, who was the 
martyr Leonides, was a teacher of eloquence, and under 
his tuition and that of Clement of Alexandria Origen was 
made familiar also with the work of Plato and the Stoics, 
but more diligently acquired a full knowledge of the 
Holy Scriptures. In A. D. 202 his father, l/conides, 
suffered for the Christian faith and, his property being 
all confiscated, left a widow and seven children utterly 
without support except their own efforts; Origen being 
the eldest and being about seventeen years of age. It 
is related of him that at the time of his father's martyr- 
dom he wanted to go to his father's side and assist him 
by rendering courage to him, so that he would stand by 
the Christian faith, and his mother prevailed upon him 
not to go ; after which he wrote a letter to his father, 
encoiu^aging him and pleading with him to stand firmly 
by the faith and not recant for the purpose of shielding 
his life, to appease and condone to his enemies for any 



304 MORTAI.S AND IMMORTALITY. 

leniency that they might offer unto him, on account of 
having to look after the mother and her children; for he 
assured him that he would be able to take care of them 
when the father was gone. Origen opened a school. At 
first he taught the ordinary Greek literature and at the 
same time explained and expounded the Christian faith 
and doctrine. He afterwards succeeded in becoming a 
teacher in a school attached to the cathedral church 
at Alexandria. The bishop placed the school under the 
direct management of Origen. Here is where he con- 
fined himself entirely to religious instruction. His fath- 
er's fame and his own ability attracted many pupils, 
among whom many suffered martyrdom. At last the 
school was closed by the magistrates of the law and he 
was driven out of the city, but only for a short time; 
he returned, and when he resumed teaching again, 
he resolved upon leading a life of great discipline and 
force in giving the religious instruction. He declined 
any and all remuneration for his services or labors in 
any way, and turned over his select library of authors 
for a small sum or stipend of four obolus a day, which 
was of the value of about twelve cents, and he slept upon 
the bare ground and wore only one garment and no 
shoes, and partook of no stimulating drinks. In order, 
as he thought, to avoid any suspicion against him in 
any way, and interpreting Matthew 19:12 Hterally, he 
emasculated himself in 210. He avowed himself a pupil 
of the Neo-Platonists, and in about 211 he visited Rome. 
When he was confirmed in doing a great work for 
biblical scholarship, he devoted himself to the Hebrew, 
in which he shortly became very proficient. In 212 he 
converted the Valentinian Ambrose, who was possessed 
of great wealth and who generously offered his assist- 
ance to Origen and enabled him to pubHsh his com- 



MORTALS AND IMMORTAUTY. 305 

mentaries on the Scriptures. In 219, he was summoned 
to appear before and meet the emperor Elagabalus at An- 
tioch. At that time he made such an impression upon 
this emperor, on account of his great learning and other 
most wonderful accomplishments, that he, with his in- 
fluence with the rulers of the Roman government, suc- 
ceeded in allaying the Christian persecution for con- 
siderable time, at least according to historians of Rome. 
On his return to Alexandria he made a great preparation 
to further the learning of the Christian theology and 
make it a scientific study. His convert, Ambrose, not 
only assisted him in teaching, but purchased many Chris- 
tian books to aid them in their instruction. Then ap- 
peared his commentaries on Genesis, the Psalms, and 
the I^amentations of Jeremiah, his first five treatises on 
the Gospel of St. John, and his tract on the resurrec- 
tion of the I/ord Jesus Christ. In about A. D. 238 he 
was sent by Demetrius, who was bishop at Alexandria, 
on a mission to Greece. He visited Palestine on his way 
and at all places was invited to render discourses and 
sermons in the churches, though not yet in holy orders. 
He opened a school in Caesarea and there continued the 
Gospel of St. John. The school flourished and its teach- 
ings spread far and wide and brought to him great re- 
nown and many learned followers, and at this time he 
wrote a treatise upon the utility and necessity of con- 
tinued fervent secret prayer, and gave a full exposition 
of the Lord's prayer. During these times he was often 
invited to be present at church councils wherein took 
place any discussions relative to the course that the 
church should take on any important point pertaining 
to their faith. During the persecution of Maximin, 
A. D.236, his friend Ambrose, a priest at Caesarea, wa -^ 
imprisoned and was kept under conditions of great en > 



306 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

elty; for their consolation Origen wrote his work on 
Martyrdom, after which he was himself compelled to 
leave Caesarea, but found shelter in Cappadocia. When 
the persecutions broke out there, he was kept concealed 
for two years in the home of a friend by the name of 
Juliana. During this concealment he wrote and com- 
pleted his treatise on the Hebrew and Greek text of the 
Scriptures, and in 238 A. D. he returned to Caesarea and 
commenced his labors again. Then he went to Athens, 
and there finished his commentary on Ezekiel. 

On the occasion of Philip the Arabian, Origen accom- 
plished the greatest work of his life, in Egypt, in writing 
his eight books which he styled and called his Apology 
to Christianity. It was in this work that you have seen 
wherein he fully and completely answered all the crit- 
icisms of the great Epicurean philosopher, Celsus, whose 
argument was contained in his book called "The True 
Word." At this time Origen was about sixty years old. 
And it was at this time that he denounced the doctrine 
that the Christian soul died with the body and there 
rested to come forth to life at the final resurrection. 
He insisted and claimed and considered that such doc- 
trine was not in accord with the true teachings of the 
Scriptures and denominated them as heretical. In the 
Decian persecution he was apprehended and subjected 
to great torture, and it was from this prison that he wrote 
a letter of exhortation and encouragement to all of his 
fellow-sufferers; but his health was broken down, and 
many of his friends reported that he died under torture 
at Caesarea. But the best authority, we think, states 
that he died at the city of Tyre, in about A. D. 254. 
For many years a tomb purported to be his was kept 
up near a great cathedral in that city. 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 307 

Almost all of his writings are obsolete. In some 
libraries they still retain the eight books of his Apol- 
ogy to Christianity, wherein he answers the writings of 
Celsus against the Christian religion. In this work, in 
perusing, you will find he sets out in paragraphs the 
statements made by Celsus in his objections to the 
doctrine and teachings of the Christians, as well as their 
claims made for their Lord and Master, as to who He was. 
This splendid work of Origen, commg down to the world 
at this time, furnishes one of the greatest proofs of the 
genuineness and the indisputable accurateness with which 
the Holy Writ has been transcribed and brought down 
to the world even to this nineteenth century. Also, by 
showing Celsus 's own admissions, it clearly estabUshes 
the fact that Jesus Christ lived at or near the time that 
it is claimed in the Gospels, and that He died upon the 
cross, and that he labored and taught the people the 
doctrine in the New Testament, and that He arose from 
the dead and ascended into Heaven, as claimed by His 
Apostles and followers; for the enemies of the Christian 
religion can not assert and maintain, with any degree 
of fairness or argument, that such an opposer of the 
Christian religion as was this great Epicurean and Pla- 
tonic Jewish philosopher, Celsus, would not have obtained 
something to show that these things recorded by the 
gospel relative to what took place pertaining to the Sa- 
vior and His life were not true, for the fact that there 
was nothing then to hinder him from showing these 
things to be untrue, since he had at his command all 
the statements, arguments, and objections (if any there 
could be) of all the learned Jews who rejected their 
Messiah and claimed that He was not the one they had 
been looking for, and crucified Him as a criminal. And 
these facts were certainly well known to all the leading 



3o8 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

and learned Jewish and pagan scholars, and this man 
Celsus had the ability and learning to acquire all this 
information to assist him in confuting and showing that 
these doings never took place, instead of admitting that 
they all did take place, but saying that the things that 
were not explainable which were done were accomplished 
by magical art and deception. There is no follower of 
the Lord Jesus Christ among all the Christian followers 
who did more or was willing to make a greater sacrifice 
for the cause of the cross than was Origen. His life, 
when looked into, is uplifting and inspiring to the true 
Christian, who comes to know that the early followers 
of the Savior and His cross were so devout and adhered 
so firmly to their faith; for it shows that they had been 
very close to their Savior in the spirit, and were un- 
doubtedly used by him to plant and disseminate His 
doctrine throughout the whole world. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 
Simeon. 

This subject was the son of Cleophas, a descendant 
of David, and filled the position among the Christian 
Fathers as the second bishop of Jerusalem, who was 
martyred, to which Hegesippus bears testimony, whose 
words we have quoted. This author, speaking of certain 
heretics, superadds that Simeon indeed about this time, 
having the charge or accusation against him as a Chris- 
tian, although he was tortured for several days, aston- 
ished both the judges and his attendants in the highest 
degree by the manner in which he terminated his life 
with sufferings like those of our Lord. Yet it is best 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 309 

to hear the writer himself, who gives the account as 
follows: "Of these heretics," says he, "some reported 
Simeon, the son of Cleophas, as a descendant of David 
and a Christian, and thus he suffered as a mart)^, when 
he was one hundred and twenty years old, in the reign 
of the emperor Trajan and the presidency of the coun- 
sellor Alliens." The same author says that a search was 
made for the Jews that were of the tribe of David. His 
accusers, as if they were descended from this family, 
were taken into custody. 

One might reasonably assert that this Simeon was 
among the witnesses and bears testimony to what they 
had both heard and seen of our I/ord, if we are to judge 
by the length of his Hfe and the fact that the Gospels 
make mention of Mary, the daughter of Cleophas, whose 
son Simeon was, as we have already shown; but the 
same historian says that there were others, the offspring 
of one of these considered brothers of the I/ord, whose 
name was Judas, and that these lived until the same 
reign after their pit>fession of Christ, and the testimony 
under Domitian, before m,entioned. He writes, thus: 
"There are also those that take the lead of the holy 
chmrch as martyrs, even the kindred of our I^ord; and 
when profound peace was established throughout the 
church, they continued to the days of the emperor Tra- 
jan, until the time above mentioned. Simeon, the rel- 
ative of our Lord, being the son of Cleophas, was way- 
laid by the heretics and also himself accused for the 
same cause. Under Atticus, he was of similar dignity. 
After he was tormented many days, he died a martyr 
V7ith such firmness that all were tortured. He was at 
last ordered to be crucified." 

The same author, relating to the events of the times, 
also says: "The chiurch continued imtil then as a pure 



310 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

and uncorrupt virgin, which, if there were any at all 
that attempted to pervert sound doctrine of the saving 
gospel, they were yet skulking in the dark retreats. But 
when the sacred choir of the Apostles became extinct 
and the generation of those that had been privileged to 
hear their inspired wisdom had passed away, then also 
the combinations of impious error arose by the fraud 
and delusion of false teachings; these also, as there was 
none of the Apostles left, henceforth attempted without 
shame to preach their false doctrine against the gospels 
of truth, such as the statements of Hegesippus.'* 

This fact of false teachers and heretics arising in the 
church after the first two generations had passed away 
only shows what positive knowledge the Savior had 
about what the future would be as to false prophets and 
false teachers that would come in their midst, and He 
stated that they would come out from among those who 
were followers of the doctrine of the cross. This has 
been going on ever since the Apostles passed away and 
Jesus Christ's teachings were turned over to the world. 
We have them among us to-day trying to pervert the 
word of the Lord and bring it before men in such a way 
that man will become dissatisfied with its teachings and 
treat it in such a manner that they in their own minds 
will try to make themselves beHeve that they have not 
emanated from divine authority. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

LovK. 

Love is the greatest force in all the universe and 
possesses the greatest power if rightly used. It eman- 
ates from God direct to man, and it is the Lord's blessing 



MORTALS AND IMMORTAUTY. 31 1 

unto man in Christianity, and for that reason it should 
be most our care to learn it. It is one of the greatest 
gifts to man that God ever gave him; for, inasmuch as 
wherein it is in us, in that proportion are we possessed 
of God. For God is love, and the love which God hath 
planted within us, we can give Him no greater thing 
than to give Him that love. In doing so we, as it were, 
surrender ovirselves unto Him, and it is the greatest 
thing that we can give to God, for it carries with it all 
that is ours. The Apostles in the Scriptures call it *'the 
bond of perfectness." It is the first commandment and 
the greatest in both the Old and New Testaments; for 
it is the fulfillment of the law, and it accomplishes the 
work of all the other graces, without any other instru- 
ment than its own immediate virtue. It is the great 
weapon which the Creator reserved unto Himself to con- 
quer rebellious man, when all the other agencies had 
failed. Reason man pursues; fear he answers blow for 
blow; futilities he meets with pleasant pleasure; but 
love's melting beams the benighted nature in man can 
not withstand. There is no one human being in a mil- 
lion nor a thousand men in all the earth's billions whose 
clay heart is hardened against love. 

IfOve flows downward, for all true love comes down 
from the Father of all comfort, and thus it goes down 
from parent to child. It was God who first loved us, 
when we were His enemies and in rebellion against Him. 
Love is an affection of the heart, and it draws one to 
admire, cherish, and adore with the greatest affection,, 
drawing one to the object of his love with the greatest 
adoration and attachment; so if their minds and feel- 
ings meet with equal admiration for each other, so that 
their feelings are mutual and their hearts beat as one, j 
each to the other is ready to make any sacrifice for the ' 



312 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

love of the other. While in this attitude they become 
inseparable in feelings so far as one is concerned toward 
the other. 

Now when this love from the heart is bestowed upon 
God, it is called divine love; or, when God's love to 
us, this love is spoken of as His divine love toward us. 
Yet the great question of divine love is not that we 
love God, but that God first loved us when we were 
His enemies. 

When we are in the attitude toward God, in otu: love 
for Him, that He requires from us, it is impossible for us 
to do anything that would bring upon us God's con- 
demnation, in such a manner that He will not pardon 
the thing wherein we have stepped aside. For this 
reason we should, while in that attitude toward God, 
do nothing that is considered a wrong in the eyes of 
the world. God being able to read the hearts of men 
and He knowing that the wrong we committed was not 
committed from the heart, such errors and wrongs com- 
mitted when in the love of God He overlooks and does 
not charge such a wrong as an offence against Him. As 
it is said in the Scripttu-es, ** Blessed is the man to whom 
God will not impute sin." That man is living in such a 
loving, obedient attitude towards his Creator that He 
overlooks his errors committed. This does not apply 
to willful sin, as no man serving God with a loving heart 
is going to commit that kind of a sin; but it is a small 
stepping aside without actual knowledge on the part of 
the one who commits the sin. While man is in the 
flesh, God knows it is impossible for him to be perfect 
Hke Himself, but He requires that fervent, loving atti- 
tude toward Him at all times. When a man or woman 
stands in that relation to God, He knows that this man 
or woman will not commit any unpardonable sin, but 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 3i3 

will lovingly submit their wills to God's will daily in all 
the things arising within their conduct of life. 

Man is commanded by God, saying, *'Thou shalt 
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all 
thy soul, and with all thy might," and He demanded 
that this commandment should be in their hearts. (Gen. 
6:5.) Then again, God charges you to teach this love 
to your children diligently — that is, continually, and re- 
quires and admonishes that you shall talk to them when 
you are sitting together in your homes and habitations, 
*'and when thou art walking out on the way, and when 
thou Hest down, and when thou risest up.** Here you 
can observe with what diligence God requires us to cherish 
and teach this love to the children. It certainly must 
show to you the great importance of this love toward 
God by His children or by those that are seeking His 
favor, and then the great importance that is shown as 
to our duty towards our children, in order that they may 
be started in the right direction toward God. Then 
they can easily obtain God's favor. 

Further, there is great responsibility shown here to 
rest upon parents especially, and upon all the followers 
of the !U)rd Jesus Christ. God also required that you 
should keep His commandments and statutes in that 
loving attitude toward Him; always looking fervently 
up to Him with a loving spirit for His wisdom, to di- 
rect you faithfully into the paths, so that you can be 
able to worship Him in that high and loving nature 
that He requires from those whom He has promised 
that He will reward with eternal life. You are required 
to be dihgent in all your efforts to comply with His 
reasonable and loving commandments; to love God and 
walk in His ways. This love, too, is required of God's 
saints, as well as all others of those that are seeking 



314 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

i 

His favor. It is the bounden duty that you owe ta 
your God that you in your prayers must have that lov- 
ing and yearning feeling toward Him, and in so doing 
you will be able to divest your mind from the love of 
this sinful world and all its allurements. 

You are also required to love your neighbor as your- 
self, at all times being ready with that tender, loving 
nature to assist him in all his laudable efforts, and es- 
pecially in his efforts to attain eternal life. The Lord 
Jesus Christ also declared that He came not to destroy 
the law, but to fulfill the law of God, and He was dili- 
gent in teaching His followers to observe this great law 
of love, which He frequently referred to where it was 
shown by God to the Children of Israel, as well as where 
it was laid down in His commandments to them, and 
said (Matt. 22:37), ''Thou shalt love the Lord thy God 
with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all 
thy mind," at the same time informing them that this 
was the first and greatest commandment; then He said 
unto them that the second greatest commandment was 
Hke unto this : *' Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." 

See what the loving disciple John says in I. John 4: 
7-8: "Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of 
God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and 
knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; 
for God is love/* Here is the all-absorbing and vital 
question with every man and woman, and plainly shows 
you that if you have not this love of God that is set 
forth in the Scriptures in yotu: heart, you know not God, 
and that you are one that is not born in the kingdom. 
The great Apostle, offering up his prayer for the people, 
in addressing himself to God, did so in this manner: ''I 
beseech the Lord God of heaven, the great and terrible 
God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for those that 



MORTALS AND IMMORTAUTY. 3^5 

love Him and observe His commandments, that He have 
compassion upon them, and lead them in a manner 
whereby they can be brought fully into the love of God." 
By this exhortation and appeal you see that God always 
keeps His covenant with man, provided that man will 
love Him and keep His commandments, not wavering 
or doubting God; for He is ever merciful and kind to 
them that love Him. When your love is such as that 
referred to in the commandments, it carries with it such 
a power in your behalf with your loving Savior that all 
sins that are forgivable will be forgiven unto you, and 
God has promised to put those sins as far from Him as 
the east is from the west, and remember them against 
you no more for ever; for His banner over you is nothing 
but love. 

The Lord revealed to one of the prophets and showed 
unto him that His love for him was everlasting, and 
therefore with an everlasting kindness God drew him to 
Himself. God further promises to draw us to Him with 
the cords of His love, provided we will draw near unto 
Him. The Scriptures abound with very many showings 
that the love of God and His Son does constrain us and 
draw us to them, if we are willing; and when you are 
filled with that love for God manifested with perfect 
faith, this will cast out all fear, and you are filled with 
the light and joy of the thought of God's great and 
glorious promises for His children. 

You are to love your enemies and heap coals of fire 
of love upon their heads, that they may be constrained 
to love you. In the minds of some people, this at first 
seems to them to be a hard saying, yet how can you 
expect God to love you when you are in rebeUion against 
Him, if you do not love those who are not your friends 
and are even willing to despitefuUy misuse you? The 



3i6 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

Savior says if you only love those that love you, what 
reward have you? do not the pubHcans do the same? 
You must not owe any man anything but that love, 
which must radiate from one to the other ; otherwise you 
will not be in the clearest attitude toward God, and in 
that attitude of love which He commands you to keep 
yourself in. To have this love toward God and man 
is both commanded. In the new commandment you are 
told that he that loveth God and his fellow-man as com- 
manded hath no need of stumbHng, for he walketh in 
the light of God ; but he that hath not that love walketh 
in the darkness, and knbweth not whither he goeth, for 
the reason that to be without this love your eyes are 
blinded and you can not see your way clearly to arrive 
at that eternal home of bliss prepared for them that have 
this love. 

In order again to realize how important this com- 
mandment of love is, look at how the Savior worked to 
bring it to the minds and firmly implant it in the hearts 
of His disciples, so as to bring them nearer unto Him- 
self, and for the further example unto them and the 
world, desiring to impress them forever that this divine 
love was the all-absorbing and vital principle for man 
to possess in order that he might reach the goal that 
God intended he should. This is very clearly and suc- 
cinctly shown when Jesus Christ appeared unto His dis- 
ciples the third time after He had risen from the dead 
and asked them to come and dine with Him. Here it 
was that He said unto Peter after they had dined: ** Si- 
mon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these?" 
And he said unto Him, "Yea, I/ord; thou knowest that 
I love thee." He said unto him, **Feed my lambs." 
He said unto him the second time, "Simon, son of Jonas, 
lovest thou me?" And he said unto Him, "Yea, Lord; 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 2>^7 

thou knowest that I love thee." He said unto him again, 
"Feed my sheep.'* The Lord said unto him the third 
time, "Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?" Peter 
was grieved because He said unto him the third time, 
"lyovest thou me?" and he said unto Him, "I/Ord, thou 
knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee." 
Jesus said unto him, "Feed my sheep." No doubt Jesus 
Christ wanted Peter to feed all the followers of the Lord, 
and nourish them and keep them within the fold in the 
love of Himself and His Father, and transmit this love 
of God unto them by an example of Peter in his love 
toward them. And the fact that Peter had proclaimed 
that he loved the Lord Jesus Christ three times shows 
to you how important it was intended that Peter should 
use all his efforts and be diligent in manifesting, teach- 
ing, and conveying this love of the Father to one an- 
other in the same manner that Jesus Christ had man- 
ifested it toward them and toward the world from the 
time of His coming until His departure. 

You can again notice the importance of this divine 
love in the further fact that it was written that "God 
so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, 
that whosoever beheveth in him should not perish, but 
have everlasting Hfe." Then look at the love that Jesus 
Christ, Who, as we have seen, was God himself, showed 
in sacrificing Himself on the cross to take away the load 
of sin that was brought upon mankind by his being God's 
enemy. The Lord said that it was a great sacrifice for 
a friend to lay down his Hfe for one, wilHngly dying for 
his friend ; but how much more is that love when a man 
will lay down and sacrifice his Hfe for his enemy? If 
you will take a little thought, meditating and studying 
what great love this must be, you will then begin to get 



3i8 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

a faint view of what a sacrifice and great love was dis- 
played by our Savior when He purchased us. 

We should get a deeper understanding of what God*s 
love is by comparing it with our own; then you will 
feel disposed to draw near to Him, exclaiming, "O mis- 
erable man that I am!" asking the Savior to have mercy 
upon you because of your failure in appreciation of His 
great love. We all should work more diligently to im- 
part that love of the heart to our Creator and to all 
our fellow-men. One who is filled with this love from 
the heart exclaimed in his joy: "Who shall separate us 
from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, 
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or 
sword?" (Romans 8:35.) 

Real love worketh no evil, but always abounds in 
every good work. Complete love worketh abiding faith, 
which casteth out all fear, and bringeth joy, grace, and 
peace. This love is what your Savior asks you to cher- 
ish within your very being. When you are possessed 
of it, you have such a longing feeling towards your Cre- 
ator that you will despise all carnal things ; and when in 
that condition, yon are in the attitude of being Godlike 
in your nature. We are told for our edification and 
glory that our God can not look upon sin in any degree, 
so that if we desire God's favor unto us, we must be 
placed in a position by that divine love so that sin will 
not abound in us, and then God will purify our very 
nature, making it like unto Himself. The truest dis- 
ciples and followers of Jesus Christ are not the ones 
that know Him most, but are they who love Him most; 
so may your love ever abound toward the Lord. 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 3IQ 

CHAPTER XXX. 

Will. 

When mankind was invested with the power whereby 
he could control his own conduct and action, then he 
became responsible for all his relations that existed be- 
tween him and his Creator and his fellow-man. That 
power which enables man to act in accordance as he 
may choose is his \vill accompanied by reason. These 
two agencies being fully vested in the human family gives 
them the great and high privilege of directing their ov/n 
destination; for man can will what he will, provided the 
thing he chooses to will does not come into conflict with 
the will of his Creator. So you can readily see that if 
a man should will that he will have eternal life, by con- 
forming his will with the will of God his destiny of eter- 
nal life is assured. For God has declared that it is His 
will that all mankind shall have eternal life if they only 
w^ill. The will of man will not conflict with the will of 
his Creator so long as man's actions conform to the 
teachings and instructions which are fully laid down and 
given to man in God's Word. There is no conflict ex- 
isting between God's Word and a perfect life of holiness, 
if man will refrain from seeking to pervert it and con- 
strue it to conform to his carnal mind. God has de- 
clared that heaven and earth may pass away, but not 
one jot or one tittle of His Word should pass away until 
all shall be fulfilled. The great and all-absorbing ques- 
tion is for man to have perfect faith in his Creator, and 
conform his will unto the perfect will of God. Then 
man's greatest success is assured. When man fully de- 



320 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

tennines in his mind the course that he intends to pur- 
sue, arriving in that state, this is called his volition, 
which, connected with the will, gives man the power of 
considering or forbearing to consider any cause or move- 
ment that wields an .influence over his mind and fully 
controls him in any particular action; so when a man 
puts forth any decided choice in his conduct relative to 
any line of action, which executively he is fully deter- 
mined on doing, that when done is called his volition, 
being caused by the exercise of his own will. 

Will may be exercised in many degrees, and when 
we fully determine what will be our course in any mat- 
ter that comes before us, so that it controls us in our 
actions, that is the highest type of the will's power, and 
that is then called our volition put into action. The 
will is the greatest agency of power that man has to 
aid him to become great in his possibilities in this world 
of accomplishments. Neither is man required or sup- 
posed to humble or in any degree humiliate or beHttle 
his will in surrendering it to the will of any of his fellows. 
The submitting of man's will is only required to be done 
by man to God, who requires the fullest submission and 
a complete surrender in all things. One of the most 
excellent qualities in mankind for him to have is great 
will-power and at the same time to be possessed with a 
very high order of reasoning to resolve in all cases to be 
able to control that great will, and submit the same 
fully to the will of his Creator, asking Him for wisdom 
to perform the course that will be pleasing in His sight. 
Our will may come in conflict with many reflections aris- 
ing within us, but then we must be ready and willing to 
submit our will to His will, for it is He that can and 
will direct us into all truths. We can follow out clearly 
the course of man's life and we will find that where man 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 321 

i 
has gone to destruction, in all cases it is where he has 

failed to submit his will to the will of his Creator. When 

man arrives at that state where he has attained to the 

full knowledge that there is not any full success except 

where man's will is kept in full accord with his Maker, 

when in that condition, he will begin to advance in his 

spiritual growth and the knowledge of his Creator will 

increase daily. It will become, as it were, perfectly nat- 

lu-al for him to say, **Thy will*be done." 

By the exercise of the will man places himself in the 
attitude where he is made insignificant or great, just in 
proportion as he uses it in the right or wrong direc.tion. 
We may at times seemingly find ourselves weak in our 
nattue and powers to exercise our wills. In all such 
cases we should apply to Him, asking for power and 
wisdom to exercise those powers so that all the results 
may be in accordance with His will. When you do this 
in its fullest extent, you will be able to accomplish all 
your honorable and laudable undertakings. If we in 
our minds will conform our will-powers to placing our- 
selves, so far as our will is concerned, in that perfect 
attitude of submission to the will of our God, then we 
will be in complete harmony with Him and His will, and 
we will then begin to realize what a Heaven of joy will 
come to us, filHng us with blissful anticipations of the 
glorious things prepared for them that are pure in heart. 

One of the great reasons why we fail to submit our 
wills unto our Creator is that we do not know Him as 
we ought, nor do we know ourselves as we should. It 
has been many times said that if man would only do God's 
will the same as though it were man's will, God would 
accomplish his will as if it were His own. The Uni- 
versal Will and the Universal Mind both are inherent 
in our Creator, and both are used by Him in perfect. 



322 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

harmony. Our Creator requires of us in the exercising 
of both the will and the mind that they must be in 
harmony with the Universal Will and Mind. So far as 
our wills and minds are concerned, relative to spiritual 
things, God requires that all His followers shall be of 
one mind and one will with Him and with each other. 
This condition must obtain or we can not all occupy and 
dwell together in that heavenly home; for the great 
purpose of the Creator of all things is to have that per- 
fect harmony of all mankind with Himself in all things. 

When our Creator brought man into existence, con- 
ferring upon him this great will-power, making him the 
free moral agent of his own destinies, man's creation 
was only second to his Maker. This, you will observe, 
was a most wonderful favor conferred, and, if man would 
only realize and appreciate how God had honored him 
in his creation, he certainly would be ready and willing 
to humbly submit his will at all times to the will of his 
Creator. What places man so far above all of God's 
creations is having that power pecuHarly within himself 
to say, ''I will that which I will," except that this con- 
forms to the will of his Creator or Maker. This fact 
alone makes man a wonderful being. Yet the great 
blessings that will come to man by this submission of 
his will to God's will should prompt him to draw nearer 
to his great Benefactor in bowing his will at all times 
to the will of God, advancing continually, step by step, 
higher up in the realms of His eternal truth, purity, and 
righteousness. 

In the next place, you must recognize this fact, that 
there is nothing that man has full control of except his 
will, which he is absolute master of, so long as he main- 
tains his reason. Reason is that faculty in man that 
enables him, by the assistance of God and faith, to say 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 3^3 

to the will, *'Go ahead and execute that which is right." 
In other words, will is that executive power that man 
does whatever he does do entirely in accordance with 
his own powers within him by this force of will. If it 
is controlled by honest and right reasoning, brings out 
the good and glorious things of this world through man's 
manifestation of his desires, this fits man to occupy the 
highest and most glorious position in the world to come. 
In applying our reason to rehgion we must first have 
faith, believing that God has spoken to man through 
His Holy Word by the Lord Jesus Christ and angels 
and by the holy prophets. When you do this and then 
commence with an honest desire to obtain the glory of 
God, how beautiful will the Scriptures or God's Holy 
Word come to you, and how faithfully you will peruse 
and absorb His most gracious promises* to man! 

Man must willingly submit his will to God's will, or 
he will surely go to destruction. This fact has been 
proven and demonstrated by man's refusing to submit 
to God in all things. Therefore when man is attempt- 
ing to accomplish anything in this world, it should always 
be with him, ''Not my will, but Thy will, O God, be 
done." This is shown to be«true and most fully estab- 
lished by the Lord Jesus Christ himself in going through 
His passion, which was no doubt for our guidance, in 
His praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. There He 
asked the Father to let the cup pass, but adds immedi- 
ately, "Not my will, O Father, but Thy will, be done." 
And then again, when the Lord Jesus Christ taught them 
how to pray, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on 
earth as it is in heaven.'* This certainly proves to you 
that God created man in a manner so that He could 
not or does not control his will, unless a man comes to 
God and shows his willingness to submit his will to God's 



324 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

will. Then the blessed Lord Jesus Christ will lead you, 
by the Holy Spirit, into all truth and holiness. Had it 
been possible for God to have controlled the will-power 
of man, God would never have been so patient and long- 
suffering and such a forgiving Father to the Children 
of Israel in doing that which He did to bring them out 
of the dreadful practice of idol-worship to worshiping 
Himself. He patiently led them through the wilderness 
to the Holy Land, which was typical of leading them 
from the miserable practice of idol-worship to that of 
worshiping the ever-living and spiritual God, Who is the 
only source which can bring man into all peace and 
comfort. 

Then see how the Savior Jesus Christ stood before 
Jerusalem, He foreseeing all the wonderful calamities 
that were so shortly to befall them, when Titus with 
the great Roman army would besiege and bring them 
to great tribulation, destruction, and starvation, leaving 
not one stone upon another of their glorious temple. 
This calamity did take place some forty-one years after 
the Savior stood up before that great city with tears 
streaming down His holy face, proclaiming, *'0 Jerusa- 
lem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and ston- 
est them which are sent unto thee, how oft would I have 
gathered thee under my wings as a hen gathereth her 
brood, but ye would not!" This showed the great love 
the Savior had for man, and how He pleaded with them 
while man was in rebellion against Him and refused to 
listen to His pleadings. This certainly is a great object- 
lesson to the world, and shows how important it is for 
us to submit oiu-selves to the will of God in order that 
it may be well with us; this also shows the power the 
Savior possessed within Himself to foresee and foretell 
all things which were to transpire in the future. 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 325 

i 

The most potent and all-absorbing thing for man to 
do, in order that he may be enabled to be brought into 
a condition where he will have the privilege of reaping 
this reward of eternal life in the world to come, is that 
he at all times keep himself in that perfect attitude of 
being willing to submit his will to his Creator. 
*'God made thee perfect, not immutable, 
And good He made thee, but to preserve 
He left it in thy power, ordained thy will 
By nature freed, not overruled by fate inexorable 
Or strict necessity." — Milton. 
"If we make God's will our law, then God's prom- 
ises shall be our support and comfort, and we shall but 
find every burden light and every duty a joy." — Try an 
Edwards. 

The will of man, when applied to religious truths, 
should always be exercised after you have gone to God 
in faith, asking Him to bring unto your conscientious 
reasoning abilities wisdom and sufficient knowledge to 
apply these religious truths presented to your senses, so 
that your adoration of Him should be full and given 
with great joy. Then the will of acting under God's will 
in applying these facts to the upbuilding of God's king- 
dom on earth as it is in Heaven. Reason is our intel- 
lectual eye, and needs light to see and see clearly deep 
down into God's kingdom. We must get that light from 
Heaven, for there is no other source from which it can 
come, for God is the dispenser of all wisdom and knowl- 
edge, and for this reason we are taught to apply to Him 
for wisdom. When man is dealing with eternal things, 
which belong to God, "I will" is not a word for man, 
but he must rather use the more divine words, "I ought." 
It has been said that if you were to deny the freedom 
of the will, you would make moraHty impossible. God 



326 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

could not, therefore, have made man the creature that 
He desired hun to be and deprive him of full control 
of his will. To be without control of the will of man, 
man could not have attained to God's image. 

"*My will, and not Thy will,' turned Paradise into 
a desert. *Not my will, but Thy will,' turned an earthly 
garden into a Paradise and made Gethsemane the gate 
of Heaven." — Pusina, 

When God endowed man with that will, He ae- 
sired and expected that man would use it with the 
highest degree of faith and reason; for without doing 
so man would be plunging himself headlong into de- 
struction in this life and fail to gain eternal life. Man's 
failiure to obey the will of God has been the means of 
bringing all the woes and miseries that mankind has ever 
been afflicted with since God placed him in the Garden 
of Eden. And one of the greatest of mysteries in solv- 
ing man's conduct is why man will persist in exercising 
his own will in regard to things that he knows nothing 
about, except he receive it by inspiration from Him who 
gave to him his will-power. It would seem that if he 
would hesitate a moment, he would see that it is like the 
bhnd leading the blind, and surely they go to destruction. 

O man, wilt thou ever learn and come to a knowledge 
of a full reaHzation of the fact that in submitting thy 
will to Him that created thee and all things else, nothing 
but good can possibly come to thee? One has said that 
if the will, which is the law in oin: nature, were with- 
drawn from oin: memory, fancy, understanding, and reas- 
on, no other hell for a spiritual being could equal what 
we then should feel from the anarchy of our powers; 
there would be a conscious madness. How oft it is said 
to man in God's Word that he should not rely upon 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 327 

his own will-powers, but fully trust and lean upon his 
Creator in all unseen, spiritual things. 

Where Daniel had interpreted the dream of Nebu- 
chadnezzar shows how God demands that His will shall 
be done in order that man may please the Lord. 

Romans 9:19: **Thou wilt say then unto me. Why 
doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? " 

Ephesians 1:5: "Having predestinated us unto the 
adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, ac- 
cording to the good pleastne of his will.'* 

James i :i8: "Of his own will begat he us with the 
word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of 
his creatures.'* 

Mark 14:36: "And he said, Abba, Father, all things 
are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: 
nevertheless, not what I will, but what thou wilt." 

John 5:30: "I can of mine own self do nothing: 
as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because 
I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father 
which hath sent me." Here is a fine illustration show- 
ing us that we can not do anything of our own will, 
but what we do in spiritual things must be done by the 
will of our Creator, and we should never as-k an)rthing 
without saying, "Father, if it be Thy will." 

Hebrews 10:7: "Then said I, Lo, I come (in the vol- 
ume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O 
God." Here you will find how you are to know how 
you are to do God's will, and there is no other course 
which you are to pursue to be brought into the knowl- 
edge and inspiration of the Scriptures to know more 
clearly the relation you bear to your Creator. 

John 7:17: "If any man will do his will, he shall 
know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether 
I speak of myself." 



328 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

Ephesians 6:6: *'Not with eyeservice, as men-pleas- 
ers, but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God 
from the heart.** 

Colossians 4:12: "Epaphras, who is one of you, a 
servant of Christ, saluteth you, always laboring fervently 
for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and com- 
plete in all the will of God.'* 

I. Thessalonians 5:18: "In every thing give thanks: 
for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." 

Hebrews 13:21: **Make you perfect in every good 
work to do his will, working in you that which is well- 
pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be 
glory for ever and ever. Amen.** 

I. Peter 2:15: "For so is the will of God, that with 
well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish 
men," that he should not live the rest of his time in 
the flesh to the lust of men, but to the will of God. 

I. John 2:17; 3:23: "And the world passeth away, 
and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God 
abideth for ever.'* "And this is his commandment, That 
we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, 
and love one another, as he gave us commandment." 

James 4:15 : "For that ye ought to say. If the Lord 
will, we shall Hve, and do this, or that." What could 
be plainer to show what condition of mind the true fol- 
lower of the Lord Jesus Christ should be in than is 
shown here in the writings of the beloved Apostle of 
our Savior? 

Romans 9:16: "So then it is not of him that will- 
eth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth 
mercy." Here it is shown that man can not by the 
force of his own will save himself by bringing to himself 
eternal life, so that he must be dependent upon God 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 329 

and His will to be brought up and out of his fallen con- 
dition into an everlasting life. 

Deuteronomy 33:16: ''And for the precious things 
of the earth and fullness thereof, and for the good will 
of him that dwelt in the bush : let the blessing come upon 
the head of Joseph, and upon the top of the head of him 
that was separated from his brethren." This is a beau- 
tiful type and attestation of Jesus Christ separating Him- 
self from His earthly relatives, and claiming that His 
mother and brethren are those that best served His 
Father which is in Heaven. Here He dwelt in the bush, 
but it was required that His will must be submitted to 
in order to reap the precious things during our habita- 
tion of God's footstool. 

Psahn 40:8: "I delight to do thy will, O my God: 
yea, thy law is within my heart." 

Matthew 7:21 : "Not every one that saith unto me. 
Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; 
but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in 
heaven.'* 

Mark 3:35: "For whosoever shall do the will of 
God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother/, 

Jesus Christ told his Apostles, over and over again, 
that it was His will to do the will of Him that sent Him 
to finish the work which His Father gave Him to do. 
John 6:39: "And this is the Father's will which hath 
sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should 
lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day." 

Bphesians 5:17: "Wherefore be ye not unwise, but 
understanding what the will of the Lord is." This is 
why you are asked to search the Scriptures and apply 
yourself to the Lord for wisdom, and He will abundantly 
supply you, further admonishing you to "take the hel- 



330 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

met of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is 
the word of God.'* 

Acts 21 .-14: "And when he would not be persuaded, 
we ceased, saying, The will of the Lord be done." 

Revelation 22:17: *'And the Spirit and the bride 
say, Come. And let him that heareth say. Come. And 
let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let 
him take the water of life freely." 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

Mind and Its Powers. 

The mind of man is the power in him that enables 
him to look upon all things in nature and all questions 
of philosophy or matter that come into his mind in an 
intellectual and rational manner. This is the quality 
that we look at when we begin to comprehend or ascer- 
tain what a person's understanding is and what power 
he may be possessed of, to judge or reason out an^^hing. 
This also includes the spiritual nature that is in man, 
which can be and is called a synonym for the soul. This 
mind of man enables him to think and to reason out in 
order to accomplish all good as well as all evil. Then 
if a man's mind is evil, his deeds are evil; or if a man's 
mind is conducted along the channels of goodness and 
righteousness, his mind stands for good. ''As a man 
thinketh in his heart, so is he." Combining the mind 
of man with his thought-power and his wiU-power, you 
have man's complete motive powers, which are in him 
to make himself a power for good or a power for evil. 
This mind that is in man aids him in thinking in dif- 
ferent directions, and he should at all times cherish up 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 33 1 

virtuous thoughts instead of evil. And in accustoming 
himself to doing so it comes easy for him to at all times 
think right. The will-power that is in all goes to make 
up the soul of man; for should you take away from 
man either of these powers, you would divest him of 
all understanding and the quahty of being a man in 
the image of his Creator. Philosophers have determined 
that the phenomena of mind and the various feelings of 
our nature, both those improperly called physical and 
those peculiarly designated as mental, that these laws 
of mind so acting are applied to the law of feeling, gen- 
erating thoughts, one to the other, are consciences of our 
being. One state of mind will produce another state of 
mind; yet back of all this phenomena is the Universal 
Mind, as we will hereinafter show, to be the prime cause 
of all the different operations of the mind. That mind 
is a spiritual mind, instead of one of a carnal nature. 
The most important point of mankind is that they should 
exercise their minds and will-power along channels of 
uprightness, honor, and honesty, in order that they may 
be able to receive and take on in their nature the higher 
life, which God will give them, and is known as a spir- 
itual life. This enables them to draw nearer and nearer 
to their Creator. 

We always speak of the Infinite Mind when we al- 
lude to the mind of God, and the finite mind when we 
apply it to the mind of man. In the Infinite Mind 
there is no limit to its greatness of powers, but the finite 
mind is circumscribed and limited, and therefore sub- 
ject to the Infinite Mind. The finite mind is not capa- 
ble of grasping the infinitude of anything, but that power 
is all with God, so you can see, and observe that our 
diminutive minds are not expected to grasp all the in- 
finitudes of truth or the infinitude of God, but you are 



332 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

asked to go forward from light and truth, stepping up 
higher and higher, as it pleaseth God, who has promised 
to lead you to higher blessings when He finds you are 
capable of receiving them. Your Father in Heaven has 
promised to give you wisdom if you will come to Him 
in the right spirit and ask Him. This wisdom is such 
that you will be enabled to know your Creator, suffi- 
cient to trust Him in all things and submit yoiu: will 
to His will. In your right thinking you can go on from 
light to light in all things, but more especially in divine 
things. God in His Word tenderly asks you to seek 
diligently to know Him. To know God is the begin- 
ning of all wisdom — that is, to know Him in a spiritual 
way, so that you become endued with His Holy Spirit, 
thereby becoming a new creature in God, in being 
born of the Spirit. When this takes place within you, 
you will immediately become spiritually discerning and 
spiritually minded instead of being carnally minded, at 
all times your inner nature and feelings having a desire 
to do all things in accordance with God's will, and the 
carnal mind, which is at enmity with all righteousness, 
will gradually cease to have any power over you. There 
is nothing that has greater force over man's motives and 
actions than his mind, and it is the power that leads 
mankind into all the different channels of life in which 
he travels. The humanity of earth has most wonderful 
powers, and when you look at them and attempt to 
grasp the great problems which they are able to solve, 
delving deeply into many unseen mysteries, and at all 
times apparently making new discoveries of things that 
do exist, you become almost willing to say, and can 
truthfully exclaim, "O Mind, thou art illimitable!" Not- 
withstanding that fact, you attempt to measure it by 
the side of the mind of your Creator; then you again 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 335 

see how its powers are limited and come far short in 
all things. The cultivation of the mind of man for ages 
and ages in the right direction tends to increase his 
power of thought, and enables him to look deeply into 
all things that are, and thereby he becomes stronger 
and more able to worship and adore and honor his Cre- 
ator in all things which He demands of him. 

The mind of man is produced in part and originates 
in his brain and his nervous system. This being a fact, 
we deem it advisable herein to illustrate and give a 
short statement as to the brain's workings, composition, 
and powers, so that you may be able, in a measure, to 
comprehend where your intellectual life powers originate. 
In the corporeal organization the brain is remarkable for 
its containing phosphorus, which varies in quantity in 
different periods of life, being the most in infancy and 
old age. The minimum of water is found in infancy, 
an interesting fact in connection with the serous effu- 
sions so prevalent at this period of life. It has been 
ascertained that the ideal brain contains less phosphorus 
than the normal organ; this being diminished nearly 
2 per cent, accompanied by deterioration of the mental 
powers. The microscopic elements of the nervous tissue 
are fiber and cell. The fibrous or nervous matter, or 
white central substance, contains tubular fibers, or nerve 
tubes, and the gelatinous fiber is found chiefly in the 
sympathetic system. The white fibers are membranous 
cylinders of a pearly luster, consisting of an extremely 
delicate, transparent sheath, within which is a large 
optic fluid, highly refractive matter, called the medullary 
layer, while the central portion is occupied by a finely 
granular mass, termed the axis cylinder. The medullary 
layer, however, is less distinct in the fiber of the brain 
than in that of the nervous trunks, and in some in- 



334 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

stances appears to be altogether wanting. The fiber of 
the brain averages 1-100,000 of an inch in diameter, pre- 
senting at some points a swollen appearance. They do 
not communicate with each other, Hke the vessels, nor 
divide into the smaller fibers, but continue unbroken 
from their origin to their final distribution, inosculating 
only at their terminal loops. The gelatinous or gray 
fibers seem to be solid, flattened, transparent filaments, 
varying in diameter from 1-1,000 to 1-4,000 of an inch. 
The mode of their connection with the elements of the 
nervous centers is unknown. The essential elements of 
the vesicular or gray nervous matter, or cells, or vessels, 
containing nuclei and nucleoli, are dark, generally glob- 
ular, but at times very irregular and variously elongated, 
enclosing a grayish granular substance, and sometimes 
pigment granules. They vary in size; the largest of 
these are the caudate, so called from their irregular life- 
like process extending from them. . The nerve- vessels are 
imbedded in a soft granular matrix in the brain. The 
nervous centers exhibit in the union of these two forms 
of matter, more widely separated in the brain than in 
the smaller ganglia. Indeed, the cerebral hemispheres 
are composed entirely of fibrous matter, surrounded by 
a layer of gray vesicular substance, into which the fibers 
are also prolonged. The tubular fibers seem to be ca- 
pable of regeneration to a certain extent. If the nerve 
be divided, but the ends not separated, a union may 
take place, and the nerve resume its office, even when 
the portion is excised. It appears that true nerve itself 
may be developed in the uniting substance, as shown 
by a partial restoration of the function by a microscop- 
ical examination. When a portion of the brain is re- 
moved by accident or design, its place is supplanted by 
a new substance, but whether this be true cerebral sub- 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 335 

stance or not has not been fully satisfactorily deter- 
mined. The white fibers may be distinguished, accord- 
ing to their physiological office, into three kinds of effer- 
ent or motor, afferent or sensitive, and commissural or 
substance-connecting. There may be a fourth series as- 
sociated with the operation of thought, of the mode in 
which the afferent nerves terminate and the motor nerves 
commence in the center organ. It may be said that 
three principal modes have been ascertained, in which 
there is an actual continuity from one form of nerve 
tissue to the other: a globular unipolar cell may give 
out a single prolongation, which becomes a fiber nerve- 
cell; may be found in the source of the tube, with 
each extremity prolonged into a fiber, or some of the 
radiating prolongation of the caudate cells; may be- 
come continuous with the axis cylinders of nerve-tubes, 
or inosculate with those of other caudate cells. A cu- 
rious circumstance in connection with the gray matter 
is the large quantity of pigment, or coloring substance, 
in it, apparently forming one of its essential constitu- 
ents, as it is everywhere present, though in some sit- 
uations more abundantly than others. It has been as- 
serted that this bears a close resemblance to the coloring 
matter of the blood. 

The center column, or spine, of the vertebrate skeleton 
encloses in its canal its spinal cord and cranium, which 
is a series of modified and expanded vertebrae, which 
protects the continuation of the cord, and its expansion 
into an aggregate of gangliform swellings of the brain, 
or encephalon. The brain is enclosed in three membranes, 
which continue, with those of the spinal cord, from with- 
out inward. These membranes are the dura mater, arach' 
noidf and pia mater. The term mater means "mother," 
which has been applied to them, as they were considered 



336 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

the parents of all others in the body. The dura mater 
is a membrane of white fibrous tissue, strong and flexible, 
but not elastic. Its fibers are organized on different 
plans. It is fully supplied with blood-vessels and is 
perforated for the passage of nerves, and it forms the 
internal peritoneum of the skull, and is closely applied 
to the cranial bones, and in some places firmly adherent. 
From it processes are given off, which serve as partitions 
behind and between the cerebral and cerebellar hemi- 
spheres. These processes have a, flex cerebri, which sep- 
arates the great hemispheres, extending on the median 
line from the forehead to the occiput along the sagittal 
suture. It is falsiform in shape, its lower border con- 
cave and corresponding to the convexity of the carpus 
collosium and its upper border enclosing the great longi- 
tudinal sinus, narrow in front and deep behind, having 
the inferior longitudinal sinus along its posterior border. 
Next to the dura mater, which also furnishes sheaths 
for the nerves and vessels at their origin, lies the arach- 
noid. The serous membrane of the cerebro-spinal cav- 
ity consists of two layers; the outer one closely adherent 
to the dura mater, and the inner one loosely to the pia 
mater. The space between the two layers is the arach- 
noid cavity, and that between it and the pia mater is 
the subarachnoid cavity or space. The arachnoid is lia- 
ble to become embalmed with the effusion of fluids into 
one or both of the above cavities, especially towards the 
base of the brain. The subarachnoid space is filled with 
what is called the cerebro-spinal fluid, varying in quan- 
tity from two to three ounces in a healthy adult condi- 
tion to ten or twelve ounces in old age. It keeps during 
life the opposed arachnoid surfaces in contact. It is the 
most abundant when the brain has shrunk, either from 
disease or from advanced age. From the extremities of 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 337 

the magendie, it appears that its presence is necessary 
for a healthy action of the nervous center. When re- 
moved, it is quickly formed again. It is a liquid, alka- 
line fluid, doubtless secreted by the pia mater, and af- 
fords mechanical protection from the brain and spinal 
cord, by the interposition of its yielding medium between 
them and the bony parietes which surround them. Its 
accumulation at the base of the brain is highly favorable 
for the protection of the large nerve and vessels there 
situated. This fluid is in an increased quantity in the 
brains of idiots and whenever the cranial or spinal walls 
are deficient, as, for instance, in the spina bifida an ac- 
cumulation of fluid becomes prominent at the part, there- 
by protecting the nervous substance. The third mem- 
brane, immediately investing the brain, is the pia mater, 
composed of white fibrous tissue and blood-vessels in 
the skull, and is very delicate and vesicular. It adheres 
to the surface of the cerebrum and cerebellum hemi- 
spheres, and sends innumerable minute vessels to their 
substance. It sinks into the fissures and sulci and pen- 
etrates into the ventricles, forming the arachnoid plexus 
and the volumna interpositum. Its minute ramifications 
are sometimes encrusted with sandy particles, consisting 
principally of phosphate of lime. The pia mater is the 
medium of nutrition to the nervous substance and to 
the arachnoid, and hence any inflammation of these 
membranes would be conmiunicated to the superficial 
gray matter of the brain, the seat of this physiological 
activity along each side of the longitudinal sinus. It is 
common to find a series of depressions in the dura mater. 
These are due to the presence of whitish granules, called 
Pacchionian glands from their first describer, of an al- 
buminous material, arising probably from a deposit of 
granular lymph among the vessels of the pia mater. 



33S MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

I 
They are found principally along the edge of the great 
longitudinal fissure of the hemispheres, pushing the ar- 
achnoid before them, and even projecting into the sinus. 
They are generally considered morbid constrictures and 
the result of irritation of a chronic character of the 
products of the disease. They do not seem to interfere 
in the least with the functions of the brain. 

The brain of the adult human male, comprising the 
whole contents of the cranium as far as the occipital 
foramen, will average in weight about 50 ounces; that 
of the adult female, about 45 ounces. If the brain were 
divided into 204 parts, the cerebral hemispheres would 
weigh 170, the cerebellum 21, and the medulla and 
sensory ganglia 13, on the same scale. The spinal cord 
would weigh 7 in proportion to the body's weight. The 
size of the brain is not in proportion to the physical de- 
velopment of the body, either in animals or man. The 
horse has a brain inferior in weight to the smallest adult 
human being. That of a whale 75 feet long was found 
to weigh not quite twice as much as that of a man; 
even in man there is no fixed relations between the size 
of the body and that of the brain. A small man may 
have a large brain and vice versa. A man of great in- 
tellectual powers generally, if not always, possesses a 
larger brain. The quality of the brain, however, is quite 
as important as the quantity; so that a large brain does 
not of necessity constitute a man with great reasoning 
powers, according to investigation. The female brain, 
though absolutely smaller than that of the male, is 
larger when compared with the size of the body. Phil- 
osophy has shown that the gray matter of nervous cen- 
ters is the originator of nervous force, while the motor 
nerves serve only to convey impressions to or from the 
different parts of the body; hence, the greater number 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 339 

of convolutions, or, in other words, the greater amount 
of gray substance, the greater will be the psychological 
power of the brain, and the mind and reasoning powers 
increase in proportion to its existence. In men the in- 
stinctive propensities are in a measure superseded by 
intelligence, but they may act independently of it. 

Many writers speak much of Universal Mind. This 
is only another name for the first great intelligent Cause, 
or for the Christian's God of the Bible, from which all 
intelligent mind emanates. The Universal Mind is the 
all-creative Power, and created man in such a way that 
he could be a distinctive sentient being, or a personal- 
ity within himself, endowing him with that will-power 
so that he (man) will not necessarily, so far as his will- 
power is concerned, be under the surveillance and dom- 
ination of any other influence of God's creation, which 
places him at the pinnacle through having the master 
mind, so that he can subdue all the earth, which God 
has given him dominion over. If man, having these 
powers so beneficently and wonderfully conferred upon 
him, will direct them or use them in such a way that he 
will at all times exercise his best judgment and mind 
in harmony with the divine mind, then all divine power 
will always aid him and assist him in all his laudable 
undertakings. There is no question but what man has 
before him the possibilities (by using his mind to his 
own advantage, accompanied by his will) to will himself 
what he wishes to such an extent that he can approach 
more closely to his Creator and the Deity from time 
to time into all eternity. And this is what the Giver of 
every good and perfect gift desires that man should do. 

When we reaUze that we are so closely connected 
with our Creator, and, as has been said, are in His very 
image, we ought to feel that He has conferred upon us 



340 MORTALS AND IMMORTAUTY. 

I 

a most wonderful blessing in giving to us these powers, 
which He has not conferred upon any other of all His 
creations; thereby placing us in a position where it is 
not only incumbent upon us, but our bounden duty to 
at all times adore and submit ourselves to that all- 
intelligent Mind, being willing and ready to do what is 
within us to please our Creator. Man will ever be going 
on into all eternity if the right course is pursued, work- 
ing in harmony with this great Universal Mind of the 
Father of all living. 

There has been much written about the subconscious 
mind which it is claimed man possesses. This has been 
hailed as a new discovery by some, and recently urged 
and forced upon the people, clainiing that it has much 
to do with man's conduct in relation to his Maker. This 
is all based upon a false conception of ideas. The sub- 
conscious mind of man has no more to do with him than 
his dreams at night, which originate in man while he is 
in a subconscious state. Sub is a Latin preposition, and 
denotes "under" or "below," which is used in English as 
a prefix to express an inferior position or intention, and 
also a subordinate degree, or imperfect state or quality; 
so that if you apply this to mind, it only denotes a 
mind in a minor capacity, and not being used to its full- 
est extent or power. Thus any condition that the mind of 
man may be in when not in its fullest working capacity, it 
is then that he attains control by a subconscious mind. 
This is displayed in man in many ways, and has always 
existed in man since God endowed him with this intel- 
ligent, reasoning mind. The study of the many condi- 
tions that the mind of man may be in is one worthy of 
our notice ; for all the different conditions that man may 
be found in, wherein his mind controls him, are explain- 
able with probably one exception — when the psycholog- 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 34i 

ical mind of man is working, which his Creator brings 
to him when he has attained to a certain spiritual height, 
approaching closely to God. 

We will here illustrate and refer you to some work- 
ings of the human mind, when in certain conditions. 
The real nervous centers for motion and sensation are 
those situated at the base of the brain, and not the hemi- 
spheres. As far as mere animal life and motion are con- 
cerned, the latter are not essential. A vast proportion 
of the animated creatures, all the invertebrates, have no 
trace of them. They are, however, at a demand, for his 
intellectual and moral nature. The instinctive and emo- 
tional actions, excited through the special ganglia, follow 
directly upon sensation without any process of thought. 
They are sometimes stronger than the voluntary ac- 
tions; e, g.j we are often compelled to laugh at some- 
thing ridiculous, though we have the strongest desire not 
to do so. Long-continued habit will often make us 
perform actions instinctively, as it were, which at first 
required an effort of the will. For instance, we have 
the illustration of an old snuff-taker who had been seized 
with epilepsy, and an irritation of her nose with a small 
feather to restore consciousness produced a contraction 
of the right fore-finger and thumb to take a pinch, 
ifemotional actions may be excited by mental operation. 
Whenever the feelings get the better of the reason, the 
sensory ganglia are excited at the expense of the hemi- 
spheres, and the individual is for the time being merely 
insane, even though his motions may point in the 
right direction. Fanatics of all classes in this way are 
really insane, and can be considered in the class of mono- 
maniacs. These instincts may also be in opposition to 
the reason, and then the more a man follows them the 
closer does he approach to the brutes. 



342 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

Comparative anatomy teaches that the cerebellum is 
largest in those animals which have the greatest variety of 
motions. Injury or removal of this organ causes no pain 
or convulsion, but destroys the powers of combining prop- 
erly the voluntary motions. Man, although inferior to 
many animals in particular kinds of movements, far sur- 
passes them in manner and complexity of their combina- 
tion. In man the cerebellum attains its highest develop- 
ment. Inflammation of its membranes andeven its almost 
complete destruction by slow disease has little effect on the 
intelligence, but the motive powers are disturbed. The 
distinct operations of these various centers are made ob- 
vious by many conditions of the body, in which one or 
more are inactive. In deep sleep the hemispheres, the 
sensory ganglia, and the cerebellum are more or less 
completely at rest, but the medulla oblongata and the 
spinal cord must always be wide awake. In dreaming 
the hemispheres are partially active. In somnambulism, 
a step nearer to wakefulness, the hemispheres are awake, 
and also the cerebellum, so that the movements are all 
well adapted to the thoughts. It is well known that in 
this state persons have walked over dangerous places 
which they could not have done had they been walking 
in open day with all their senses intact. There is an 
evident loss of control over the thoughts, which are 
more influenced by extreme impressions than in dream- 
ing, so that the somnambulist may answer questions 
properly; and that there is no full command over the 
senses the dangerous accidents occurring in this condi- 
tion fully prove. The events of this state of the mind 
may not be enumerated in the waking hours, but may 
be taken up again by the memory the next night, con- 
stituting complete double consciousness, a condition re- 
markably analogous to some somnambulism. Also in 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 343 

the mesmeric sleep or trance a nervous habit of body 
predisposes to both overworking the brain and exciting 
the body. Wear and tear of the brain, like wear and 
tear of the muscles, require periodic and long intervals 
of rest. From want of attention to this fact many bright 
intellects have faded into imbecihty and insanity. The 
hemispheres are divided into separate parts, and there 
is a lobe or section of the brain that supplies men with 
each of the five human senses; and it is known that one 
of these lobes or brain compartments may be entirely 
destroyed and the other parts active, and each serve its 
own purpose, but the sense that the brain is destroyed 
in may be totally absent from the body. This fully 
demonstrates that the brain is the clearing-house to all 
of man's faculties, whatever they may be, so it must act 
in a summary w^ay and produce all of man's thoughts in 
the same manner that it does seeing, hearing, smelHng, 
or feeling sensations, except those thoughts which come 
to him through those psychic powers, which are no 
doubt aided and assisted, oftentimes in great power, 
directly from his Creator. 

The thought-powers originate in the brain the same 
as any other faculty that man possesses, but the thoughts 
are reflected from the brain, as the. rays of light are 
reflected from a looking-glass. The dijfference is, the 
rays of the sun are one agency, and the other is God's 
power and means of reflecting Himself through man. 
These thoughts are produced through man in proportion 
to man's powers in his brain to receive them and dis- 
pense them through the God-given powers of language,, 
and this language given unto man by God is used and 
controlled by the mind of man just in proportion to his 
intelligence acquired from all the sources of his education 
and his natural powers received by reason of the educa- 



344 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

tion and culture of his ancestors. The power of that 
mind or thought is measured by the amount and quantity 
of the gray matter, and the brain is increased in quantity 
and enlarged by the cultivation and the using of it. It 
is a well-known fact that the brain of man will grow 
and expand after the stature of man has ceased to de- 
velop, but this growth is increased by the active use of 
it, just as the muscles of the body increase or diminish 
in accordance with their use and exercise. The greatest 
increase of the brain after man's maturity is in the 
growth of the gray matter. 

One of the most complex studies among all students 
and philosophers has been that of mental phenomena. 
The brain, with the support of all its connective powers, 
furnishes to man the powers that produce all his mental 
existence. It is therefore the direct dynamic force of 
the mind in all its various workings in the mental phe- 
nomena that all science has been able to trace out. Mind 
does not produce thought, but thought and mind are the 
direct reflections from the brain, and produce these qual- 
ities when life is brought in contact with the brain. The 
spiritual thoughts arise in man and emanate from the 
part of the brain that contains the gray matter or pia 
mater, in the reflective portion of the brain, which is 
located over and above the optic nerve or the lobe from 
which the optic nerve originates. The power of this 
portion of the brain is measured just like any other 
powers that are known to exist in the brain. The spir- 
itual and psychic powers are as much different in indi- 
viduals as the brain varies in size and quaHty in the 
pia mater. This is why no philosopher can arrive at 
the things unseen unless he has been educated in that 
higher or spiritual and psychic nature, so that he is 
capable of receiving that inspiration from his Creator. 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 345 

Spiritual gifts are from God, just as well as all other 
gifts and qualities that are in mankind, and the faculty 
of obtaining them and the manner pursued must be just 
as we obtain every other power that we have. This 
power of the mind of reasoning and philosophizing from 
cause to effect and receiving spiritual inspiration through 
our psychic powers from the I/ord is one of the most 
phenomenal powers that man pessesses, and our ability to 
use and increase those powers can be assumed by us if 
we will take hold of them as we are instructed by God in 
the study of His Word, which is faith in the Lord Jesus 
Christ, and ask Him to grant unto us these powers, 
which He will do if we will submit our wills to God's 
will. There are two different powers that produce those 
effects. One is done by the reasoning and mathemat- 
ical and philosophical process; the other by the intuitive 
power of the brain, operated on by God's Holy Spirit, 
which results in producing the volition of righteousness 
within man. When men or women attain this spiritual 
power within them sufficient so that they are brought up 
to that high standard of spiritual life where they are 
bom of the Spirit from on high, as the Savior has said 
many times to the world that all must have this quality 
before they can enter into His kingdom, then they at- 
tain to that height of perfection where they are in a 
position to hold such a relation to and with the Lord 
Jesus Christ (as He promises unto them) that He will 
give them eternal life; for eternal life is a gift, and was 
what was brought and promised by the Lord Jesus Christ 
to all men that beHeved upon Him and kept the com- 
mandments and did the will of His Father in Heaven. 
For God has demanded of man that he should conduct 
himself in that high spiritual manner so that the mind 
of man would become the same as the mind of Himself; 



346 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

in other words, man is taught that he should be of one mind 
with the eternal Creator of all things. When God made 
this request of man He so implanted in man this mind 
with a will-power, so that he can mold his mind in con- 
formity with all righteousness, and maintain and hold 
it in that high standard of thought. The mind of man 
enables him and gives him the power to look upon all 
questions of eternity when directed by His Creator in 
an intellectual and rational manner. 

Some of the very best mental philosophers claim and 
have admitted that the mind of man has never reached 
to the height of power so that he could investigate and 
arrive at any definite solution of what the intellectual 
powers in the mind consist. This being a demonstrated 
fact, we are then drawn to that position where we see 
the impossibility for us to arrive at any exact determina- 
tion of just what all its powers are, or what its great pos- 
sibiHties may be. Thus you see the mind of man in its 
workings in going through all the different thoughts and 
feelings in exercising will-power, and then adding to that 
all the sensations of a sentient being, is such that man 
has discovered his impossibility to solve with any degree 
of intelligent accuracy how his thoughts originate. If 
this were possible in man, then we could easily solve and 
ascertain every other quality that is in the many powers 
which mankind displays in the economy of the workings 
of his brain. The only solution is that these thoughts 
come to him from and through the great mind of his 
Creator. Certain conditions have followed where cer- 
tain complications of the brain have been known to ex- 
ist. Parts of the brain when affected will impair certain 
faculties of the mind, so that parts of the brain may 
be removed, and the part where the brain has been re- 
moved will show an entire loss of that faculty which 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 347 

that portion of the brain represents. You destroy the 
optic nerve, and the sight is obHterated entirely, but the 
mind remains, and can conceive of seeing Hght just the 
same as it could before the optic nerve was destroyed; 
yet, if light had never reached the senses of man, then 
in that case he could not conceive of what light con- 
sisted, or how it appears to one who has the sense of 
seeing and has had the opportunity of observing light. 
The brain, from whence all mind originates, is very com- 
plicated and complex, and its operations, so far as to 
produce one thought after another in rapid succession, 
can not be fully explained. There is a class of phil- 
osophers who have vainly attempted to demonstrate the 
theory that our mind thoughts of all descriptions and 
voHtions are produced through the powers of the mech- 
anism and relations of the different parts of one part of 
the brain to the other; that each organ is entirely sep- 
arated from the other, yet when associated and used in 
a collective state, will produce a different thought or 
imagination, in the same sense that we have organs of 
sensation. They further contend that the thought is as 
much the result of the nervous agency as sensation, ex- 
isting as does our nervous system, and connected with 
the brain by the same law. If this were true, the mind 
would be produced by the condition of the state of the 
body, which, on its more full investigation, you will ob- 
serve is impossible, for the mind rushes into existence 
without any effort whatever of the one who has it, and 
a complication of the thoughts originates from a compli- 
cation of the brain. Many times those thoughts are 
forced upon the mind of man beyond his physical pow- 
ers to intelligently handle them as they are impressed 
upon him, in being able to use them when they come to 
him one after another in such rapid succession that he 



348 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

is unable to dispose of them as he would like. This has 
been fully demonstrated by many writers and orators 
to exist in the workings of their brain-power. You can 
see that if this fact existed, it would be impossible for 
the body to produce anything to the brain in that way, 
because it must first be distributed in its nervous organ- 
ization and the velocity of the thinking power could not 
obtain. There is a further theory and reason advanced 
why one thought calls upon another thought to come 
forward and assert itself for use, or, in other words, one 
thought suggests to another thought and is caused by 
the assistance of one part of the brain to some other 
part of the brain. This theory can not be maintained 
with any positive degree of scientific accuracy or cer- 
tainty, so that we can arrive at any final conclusion that 
it positively does exist. The mental productions of the 
mind and things springing spontaneously from the brain 
while in sleep and awake all prove that these theories 
can not be successfully maintained. 

However, it is not the purpose of this article to sci- 
entifically make any effort to discuss the full workings 
of the mind. The individual environments of man in 
all probability have a varied and different degree of 
effect upon his thinking power, and the power of one 
man's mind can not reach out as far in certain directions 
as another, nor do any two minds reason from exactly 
the same standpoint; so that one may reason from false 
premises and the other may reason from scientific and 
correct principles, and then necessarily their conclusions 
would be entirely different. However, in applying this 
to the relations of man and his Creator, it does not 
apply; for God has told man that if he will submit his 
will to God's will, and search the Scriptures with a view 
to obtaining eternal life and taking God at His word 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 349 

at all times, then, as far as the spiritual mind of man 
is concerned, it will become God-like, with power to see 
into eternity with a spiritual discernment that will be 
most convincing. Man is instructed to so conduct him- 
self that his mind will meet fully the mind of his Creator. 
In your following this course God has promised to lift 
you up and put you by His Holy Spirit into a train of 
thought with Himself. This fully illustrates and shows 
that the carnal mind does not work in man the same as 
the spiritual mind. This is the very reason why a man 
should be born again from the carnal nature into the 
spiritual nature, so that he will reason from a spiritual 
standpoint instead of from a carnal nature. Right here 
is where God makes the dividing line and shows to man 
that while he is in this carnal mind he can not please Him. 
Science has never been able to arrive at just how the 
mind would operate after the brain ceases to have life 
connected with its operation. There can hardly be a 
question of reasonable doubt but what the mind con- 
tinues to be active when separated from the brain; yet 
there can not be any scientific demonstration to prove 
that it does not become dormant, though when we are 
fully convinced that man is made in the image and 
likeness of the one universal Divine Mind, we may as- 
sume that this mind of man, which no doubt is a part 
of the Divine Mind, would be in an active state, just as 
the Divine Mind has been in an active state from all 
eternity; that this condition of the Divine Mind had 
this quahty of activity and life power and knowledge 
when God imparted a portion of that Mind for the use 
of man in his individual capacity. We must remember 
that the mind implanted in man when he was created 
was a spiritual mind, and not a carnal mind. There is 
no contention that the carnal mind Hves after this life 



350 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

ceases to be connected with the brain; but, on the other 
hand, it is contended and told to us by our Creator that 
the carnal mind dies with the body, and for ever remains 
in (Sheol) the grave. There can not be any. question 
but that God has implanted the spiritual mind in man, 
with a power aided by the agencies of other powers that 
he possesses, so that he can cultivate it and. expand its 
powers by asking the Divine Mind to give wisdom, so 
that man can become more and more like his Creator. 
This spiritual mind must be able to have an active ex- 
istence after the separation of life from the body, or 
man can not be, nor was not, created in the image of 
his Creator; for no one will contend that the Universal 
Mind can not and does not have an active intelHgent 
existence without being connected with a corporeal body. 
God, in His instructions to man, asks him to so con- 
duct his thoughts and the operations of his spiritual 
miind that all those who are following after their Creator 
will be of one mind with each other and one mind with 
their Creator. This condition, too, must obtain in man 
before he can inherit eternal life and dwell with Him in 
all eternity. The way to attain to this glorious state 
is to labor at all times with heartfelt desire to be in- 
structed of God, submitting yotu: will unto His, asking 
Him for that divine wisdom and knowledge to be im- 
planted* within your mind in accordance with His will. 
By a man or woman seeking divine wisdom, the mind 
will continually expand and grow and take on larger 
problems of spiritual insight, thereby becoming acquaint- 
ed and having a richer knowledge of God; which means 
advancement in all spiritual knowledge of the unseen 
and eternal conditions that await man's arrival, pro- 
vided his life and mind have been in accordance with 
the will and mind of His Creator. Your Creator does 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 35 1 

not require or expect you to have the same spiritual 
strength of mind He possesses in being able to grasp 
the infinite of all things, but you are to go forward and 
grow, receiving hght and wisdom to all eternity. We 
must become like God in all our very being and nature 
in order to dwell with Him for ever. We are not ex- 
pected to become equal with Him, but we may become 
equal with the angels, and become children of the most 
high God, dwelling with Him for evermore, humbly and 
joyously praising Him and His manifold works, at all 
times being in complete harmony of mind, with no de- 
sire to do anything except that which will be in accord- 
ance with the perfect will of Him who created all things. 

Matthew 22:37: , ** Jesus said unto him. Thou shalt 
love the Irord thy God with all thy heart, and with all 
thy soul, and with all thy mind.'' 

Eternal life is only obtained by those that have been 
called by the Father. In order for man to receive this 
call and acceptance, he must be pure and holy in the 
sight of his Creator. The man who has been alienated 
from his Maker through being full of sin (disobedience) 
and carnally minded attains this condition by being 
regenerated and bom a new creature in Christ Jesus. 
This new birth is a coming back to God, or the Lord 
Jesus Christ, and receiving within him God's Holy Spir- 
it; and becoming spiritually minded, doing the will of 
his Creator at all times. To all men who are in rebel- 
lion against their Maker, and possessed of a carnal mind, 
so that they become dead to God's Holy Spirit, and to 
those who do not give recognition to that still, small 
voice — all such called from this world to the grave die 
in both body and soul for ever. In the lifetime of such 
persons the Spirit was dead to them, and there could be 
no eternal life in them while in the flesh. All such will 



352 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

not receive the gift of eternal life; for they are so com- 
pletely separated from all eternal and spiritual power, 
which God claims that He is, and it is through this 
power only that man is able to overcome the power of 
death and the grave. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

Faith. 

Before faith came we were kept under the law, being 
shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be re- 
vealed; the law acting as a school-master to prepare us 
ready to receive Jesus Christ, that we might be justi- 
fied by our faith. So when faith comes we are no longer 
under the law, but are to worship the Father and the 
Lord Jesus Christ by having that implicit faith. If we 
manifest ourselves towards our Creator with this trust 
and faith. He will bring nothing to us but good. That 
trusting faith we must have, for without this faith we 
are nothing in the spiritual life; for God plainly tells 
you without faith it is impossible for you to please Him. 
All that you do towards God, without faith in Him 
nothing can come of it except evil. St. Paul, in all 
his exhortations to the members of those who had been 
drawn to the Savior by His teachings, says: ''Above 
all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able 
to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked." It is plainly 
shown that faith without works is dead; for if men or 
women have true faith in God's promises, they are sure 
to do His will, by working in His vineyard without ceas- 
ing, with great zeal. You are asked to build yourselves 
up by the most holy faith. This is the kind of faith 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 353 

that will make men or women Godlike in their spiritual 
life. 

God tries your faith and tests the same with the 
greatest of ordeals. This is done in order that you can 
withstand all the temptations that may overtake you 
which will tend to draw you into the allurements of this 
evil world. You build up everything that you are, in 
the unseen things, by your faith; and thus you walk 
by faith, and not by sight, in all the realms of eternity. 
You are required to examine yourselves, and be not de- 
ceived in yourselves, and see whether you are possessed 
with that faith that will be equal to the saving of the 
soul. This shows the importance of all having a full 
understanding of the conduct of all who desire to bring 
themselves into a condition of favor with God, knowing 
that it is impossible for them to do so without faith 
first acquired in God and His Word; for He has pro- 
claimed in His Word to the world that without faith it 
is impossible for any one to please Him. Thus the im- 
portance of faith is herein fully shown. Then again we 
find that those who walk after the material world in 
their observations do so by the aid of the temporal eye 
of this world; but those who have been born of the 
Holy Spirit walk after the unseen and spiritual kingdom 
by the observation of the spiritual eye: strengthened 
and sustained perfectly by a perfect faith in God's Word 
that is always a lamp to their feet and a light to their 
path, being continually before them. 

Skepticism never accomplished any great advance- 
ment in learning or in any of the sciences of this world, 
but kills everything that it comes in contact with and 
then leaves it in its destroyed condition. On the other 
hand, those who accomplish the great things of this 
world have always been the ones who were possessed. 



354 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

of great faith. Admitting this to be a fact, we see the 
great power there is in faith over the possibiHties of 
mankind who are faith-builders within their own being 
and nature. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, 
and His Word, which the Lord denominates as the 
sword of faith. So that if any expect to ever be any- 
thing in this world or the world to come, and think 
they can do so without .having faith, they will find they 
have made a great mistake. They are laboring in a 
condition of mind that will tend to drag them down 
to destruction. It is proclaimed that "as thy faith is, 
so shall it be unto thee.'* And without faith we can not 
accomplish anything or acquire a condition that will 
bring anything to us in this world or the world to come; 
neither can they make any progress in this life, in a 
spiritual way of building themselves up so they may 
become more like their Savior from day to day until 
He appeareth. In order to instue yourselves that you 
may have and reap that reward which is eternal life, 
you must have full faith in all spiritual things pertaining 
to the triune God and their works and manifestations 
unto you in a spiritual way. If you could take from 
yourself all semblance of faith, and then examine your- 
self and see what a condition you would be in, doing 
this would probably bring to you more forcibly than any 
other way the importance of faith. 

There is not a day passes but that we do many things 
by faith; almost anything that we do could not be done 
or accompHshed in the proper manner if we had no 
faith that we could accomplish it. On the other hand, 
when we expect to do anything and we have the greatest 
confidence and faith that we will be equal to the task, 
how easy it is for us to accomplish it! This is merely 
referred to in order to show you the importance of hav- 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 355 

ing faith, and having this faith in the unseen things, 
which you well know are eternal, is of much more im- 
portance for our welfare and strength to accomplish spir- 
itual things. Your Father in Heaven, well knowing this 
fact, very graciously and tenderly appeals to you to have 
that full faith and confidence in Him, well knowing the 
indispensability of it. This you must possess in a man- 
ner not wavering or doubting, in order to derive the 
benefits which will come to you by having implicit faith. 
When you place yourself in that condition of faith, this 
will bring to you a faith which is denominated and 
called a saving faith, and then God will be within you, 
and in that day He will give you eternal life. (II. 
Chron. 2:5.) 

Examples of faith are shown all through the Holy 
Writ, for our guidance. The Lord Jesus Christ and all 
His Apostles most graciously call your attention to these 
beautiful showings of faith where the Father has recog- 
nized them and blessed the believer. He confers His 
blessings and protection upon all such by bringing to 
them the strength of His right hand of power. In Dan- 
iel 6:10 we find where the decree of the king had gone 
forth, that all must worship Baal, and the king's serv- 
ants carried the edict to Daniel, whom they desired 
should be destroyed or taken out of their midst, for the 
reason that they regarded him as a menace and hin- 
drance to them in carrying out their mode of worship 
and manner of living. But the faithful Daniel offered 
up his loving prayer to God as he had theretofore always 
done, concealing nothing, pra)dng openly to the world 
three times a day, where all could know and see that he 
was worshiping and offering up his adoration to the true 
and Hving God. When these evil and unbelieving men 
sought to have him persecuted and put to death, Daniel 



356 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

was protected by his God. We find also in Jonah 3:5 
where the Ninevites, who Hved in the city of Nineveh, 
trusted and beheved God and did as He told them, and 
they provided for man's further needs and put on sack- 
cloth and ashes and girded themselves and worshiped 
Him with faith, beheving that which had been graciously 
provided by the great wisdom of God. Their city was 
spared and not destroyed. This is shown and recorded, 
no doubt, in order that those who are placed in a condition 
where they become helpless of themselves will be taught 
to lean upon their Creator, who can alleviate and protect 
them from every evil. 

Every man or woman that is adjudged just by God 
must live by faith, while in that justified state, and by 
any falling from that saving faith you at once become alien- 
ated from God, and in His Word it is declared that He 
takes no pleasure in your life while in that faithless 
condition, and you become completely filled with such 
a nature that you have lost favor with your Creator. 
(Rom. 10:38.) It is always shown that when you ac- 
cept that which God has fiunished you with thankfulness, 
it is pleasing unto Him, and His promises will always 
come to you in rewarding you for so doing with great 
blessings. This faith must be steadfast, and of such 
fullness that you will be in an attitude to be self-denying 
in all things towards God. You must diligently exam- 
ine yourself and see if you have faith, or whether you 
are just feigning faith and are not fully relying upon 
God's promises and the Lord Jesus Christ and His Word. 
The things unseen are impossible for you to know, ex- 
cept that it may be given to you from Him who giveth 
to all the faithful liberally. 

Make a strict examination of yourself and fully prove 
to yourself that you are in the faith of God in all good 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 357 

conscience, and then in that case you may have the 
faith that makes you of such a spiritual nature within, 
fully bringing to you the promises given relative to what 
it will accomplish in you in His Holy Word. This faith 
is a full submission of our understanding. It is an obla- 
tion of our idoHzing reason to God, which is required 
by Him to be rendered in the most humble manner, so 
that our whole affections and will can be centered in 
Him, and be received by us with such freedom and sub- 
mission that He can direct and be the leader of our lives. 
However, this thought at first will seem to you to be a 
very large offering and a great sacrifice on your part; 
but when you come to take into consideration and know 
that by your submitting your faith to God you are being 
led by One who doeth all things well, and further, that 
no good can come to you from any other source except 
through Him — when you fully realize this, then you can 
begin to see how that full submission of faith should be 
considered by you as a reasonable one and joyously 
submitted; for without this submission of faith rendered 
to His hands it is impossible for His pleasure to come to 
you. Men are so prone to fix and weave a web of opin- 
ions in their own mind, wholly built up out of and from 
their own self-willed carnal nature and conceived by 
their own diminutive mind, not asking God for wisdom 
to guide them or relying upon His instructions in His 
Word. They oftentimes formulate a reHgion for them- 
selves. Such a religion or code of faith emanating from 
man can have no regenerating effect upon man's evil 
nature. Where man follows in those misdirected courses 
originated by himself, they will bring nothing to him 
except destruction. No system of religion can be based 
upon anything emanating from man who is occupying 
the earth and living after the carnal mind, for it can 



358 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

not be any higher than the carnal mind that conceived 
it. This certainly shows to you that any systems of 
religion or plan of salvation for man that is based upon 
anything except the Lord Jesus Christ can not help but 
be ruinous to men. For man must be under the influ- 
ence of a power which the Scriptures call the Holy Spirit 
in order to elevate and lift him out of his sinful con- 
dition to a position of holiness. HoHness and righteous- 
ness come by faith in God and His power to lift you up 
in a spiritual way, and this strength by faith is always 
plentiful to all them who seek for it with great zeal and 
earnestness, at the same time performing good works, 
which always increase and strengthen faith. The eye 
of faith looks into the unseen future, and when faith be- 
comes perfect, brings it as a reality to the soul, and it 
casteth out all fear. It is very important for man to 
know and feel his dependency upon his Creator; for, 
O man, thou knowest that thou hast no power beyond 
the grave, and this proves to you how foolish it is to 
attempt to manufacture a faith unto thyself. Oh, how 
wise it is for thee to take and build up thy faith in God's 
promises, which He has laid before thee so wisely in order 
to keep thee from going to destruction ! 

There is a beautiful illustration of faith displayed in 
Peter. (Matt. i6:i6.) The Lord Jesus, being in the 
presence of His disciples, began to propound to them 
some questions, as He ofttimes did throughout His min- 
istry; in this instance, no doubt, for the purpose of 
testing their faith. He asked them the question, "Whom 
do men say that I, the Son of man, am?" In replying 
to Him some of them said, unto Him, "They think that 
thou art John the Baptist. Some say thou art Elias. 
And others think that thou art Jeremias, or one of the 
prophets.'* And He then said to them, "But whom say 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 359 

ye that I am ? ' ' Almost always Simon Peter would speak in 
advance of the other Apostles, and having great faith in the 
Savior, and being impulsive by nature, he exclaimed, ' ' Thou 
art the Christ, the Son of the everliving God." Jesus ans- 
wered and said unto him," Blessed art thou, Simon Bar jona ; 
for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my 
Father which is in heaven." And here the Savior declared 
that the principle of the Holy Spirit revealing unto men the 
things needed to bring to him eternal life through God's 
power was based upon that rock ; that He would establish 
His church upon the theory that all who came unto Him, 
must first have it revealed unto them through the Father 
and the Holy Spirit and the sword of the Spirit in such 
a manner that they would be born again and know that 
He was the Christ and the Son of the everlasting God. 
Had it not been for Peter's saving faith that he had 
within, he never would have been able to exclaim to 
Jesus the words which he did, because they never would 
have come to his mind and been revealed to him by the 
Father as they were. Here is a great. illustration of how 
simple and important it is to have within you that un- 
wavering faith in God and all His promises. 

In Luke 7 :50 Jesus Christ said unto the woman that 
had much sinned, who had washed His feet with her 
tears and wiped them with her hair, "Thy faith hath 
saved thee; go in peace." 

John I 49 is a beautiful illustration of how the faith 
of Nathanael was displayed, and it shows that he was 
a man who acted with sincere purposes and desires; for 
when he was informed that this wonderful personage, 
Jesus Christ, had come out of Nazareth, that country 
being so despised and rejected of men, he exclaimed, 
"Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" And 
immediately he was told to come and see. And when 



36o MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him, He said of him, 
*' Behold an IsraeUte indeed, in whom is no guile!" 
Nathanael, inquiring of Him, said, ''Whence knowest thou 
me?" Jesus said, "Before that Philip called thee, when 
thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee." And Nathan- 
ael answered and said unto Him, "Rabbi, thou art the 
Son of God; thou art the king of Israel." Jesus prom- 
ised him that he should see greater things than he had 
seen at that meeting. 

In John II :25-27 is shown the great faith of Martha. 
Jesus said unto her: "I am the resurrection, and the 
life: he that believeth on me, though he were dead, yet 
shall he live : and whosoever liveth and believeth on me 
shall never die. Believest thou this?" She said unto 
Him: "Yea, Lord; I believe that thou art the Christ, 
the Son of God, who should come into the world." 

There is another fine and beautiful illustration of 
faith, where they gave to a man of faith duties to per- 
form, in Acts 6 :5 and verses preceding, where the multi- 
tude required that just and faithful men might be picked 
out, seven in number, that they might appoint them over 
their work; and at the same time they said they would 
give themselves continually unto prayer and to the min- 
istry of the word. This pleased the multitude, and they 
chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, 
and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, 
and Parmenas, and Nicolas, a proselyte of Antioch; and 
it is related that Stephen was so full of faith that he had 
great power and did great and wondrous miracles among 
the people. 

In Acts 1 1 :24 it is shown that by the goodness of a 
man, and by his being filled with the Holy Ghost, hav- 
ing faith, he had great power in adding and drawing 
people unto the Lord, and it displays the fact that 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 361 

through his faith came his power to convince men of 
their needs of the Lord Jesus Christ and His doctrine. 
It is shown in the Epistle to the Hebrews that ''faith 
is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of 
things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good 
report. Through faith we understand that the worlds 
were framed by the word of God, so that things which 
are seen were not made of things which do appear." 
And it is further shown that by faith Abel offered up 
to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, and by his 
faith he received a witness from God that he was right- 
eous; and it was through faith that Enoch was trans- 
lated, so that he should not see death. It is further 
shown that without faith it is impossible to please God, 
for you can not go to God for anything unless you have 
faith and believe that He is. Noah was informed of 
God of things which were to come, and He prepared the 
ark, saving his house from destruction. By faith Abra- 
ham was called into a place which he should after receive 
for an inheritance, and by faith he sojourned in a strange 
country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, 
which were heirs with him of the same promise, and 
commanded to look for "a city which hath foundations, 
whose builder and maker is God." Through faith Abra- 
ham offered up Isaac, offering his only begotten son. 
By faith Jacob, dying, blessed his son Joseph, and wor- 
shiped, leaning upon the top of his staff. It was by 
faith that Joseph, when he died, made mention of the 
departing of the Children of Israel and gave command- 
ment concerning his bones; and it was through faith 
that Moses, when he came to years, refused to be called 
the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer 
affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleas- 
ures of sin for a season. Through faith the Children of 



362 MORTALS AND IMMORTAUTY. 

Israel kept the Passover, and by faith they passed through 
the Red Sea as by dry land. St. Paul relates the faith 
as given, of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae, and 
of David, and of Samuel, and of all the prophets who 
through their faith subdued kingdoms and stopped the 
mouths of lions; out of weakness they were made strong, 
and waxed valiant in fight, and turned to flight the great 
armies of the aliens. All other BibHcal characters who 
have ever had favor granted unto them worthy of note 
have received it through their great faith, taking God at 
His word and believing His promises. 

It has been said that faith makes all evil good to us, 
and all good better. Unbelief makes all good evil, and 
all evil worse. This shows the importance of having 
faith in unseen things that have to be revealed to us. 
Faith is something that must be sought after and cher- 
ished in our minds daily. In order to obtain the full 
benefit of faith you must call upon God to give you 
faith and to daily strengthen your faith. It might seem 
strange to some why this is so, that you must seek and 
labor to obtain faith; but it is obtained by effort, just 
as anything else is obtained by effort. See what the 
Apostle Paul says: **I have fought the good fight of 
faith, and there is a crown of eternal life laid up for me 
in glory.'* You see, he said we must fight the fight of 
faith, always looking to Him who is the author and 
finisher of our faith to assist us in all our efforts in seek- 
ing that everlasting abode; for He said He would go 
and prepare a place for them that had faith, believing 
on Him and doing His will. 

Point out the man who has no faith and you will 
make the discovery of one who has not a mind sufficient 
to grasp anything that comes to him in nature. If that 
is forcibly impressed upon him by any of the forces of 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 363 

nature, being in this condition certainly would be void 
of all reason. Faith is that influence over man that 
enables him to look out and up to higher things and take 
hold of Him who can lift man out of all his most trying 
difficulties and bring to him joy out of sorrows. There 
is nothing that makes man so strong in all his career 
which he has to deal with as a well-grounded faith in God, 
and all other things wherein man wants assistance from 
unseen forces. Faith is something that must be used 
and sought after by every honest effort to obtain and 
influence in your nature. Men or women who are full 
of faith in unseen things are strong and go through life 
without a faltering step, displaying a strength and bold- 
ness in their lives, instead of fear and trembling. It is 
shown in the devout, beheving Christian, whose Hfe is 
in accordance with his profession, how an obedient faith 
in Jesus Christ triumphantly sustains him through all 
tribulations and trials of this sinful and dying world. 
This abiding faith will fully enable him to look to his 
Creator and say in a fervent spirit, *'Not my will, but 
Thy will, be done.'* 

Having the blessed abiding faith in God's Word and 
the precious promises left to a dying world places in the 
breast of man a tender conscience, which He has in- 
structed us to keep at all times. This conscience in man 
is molded and formulated in proportion as to how man's 
faith is touching the teachings of God's Word. By con- 
tinually bringing the mind of a man the blessed instruc- 
tions laid down in God's Revelation, and he receiving the 
same with an abiding faith, his conscience will be always 
kept tender towards all righteousness, thereby being able 
to discern wrong at a glance, and doing so puts his seal 
of condemnation upon it at once. The conscience, if 
nurtured by faith in God with a true knowledge of all 



364 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

the teachings, setting forth the will of God, can and 
will be kept tender, and you can rely upon such a con- 
science to direct you in paths of righteousness and di- 
rect you from all things that lead to unrighteousness. 
This is beautifully illustrated where the Lord said, "Let 
him that is without sin cast the first stone.'* All had 
a conscience sufficiently tender to at once feel that they 
were not without sin and were guilty of sin ; they fled, 
and refused to condemn the woman. The Savior told her 
to go her way and sin no more. 

In I. Timothy 1 119 it is shown how you can put away 
a tender conscience as well as your faith, holding that 
faith and a good conscience; which some having put 
away concerning their faith had made shipwreck of 
themselves, and such are given over to their sins, that 
they may learn not to blaspheme. A pure and tender 
conscience is one of the most blessed attainments that 
a man or woman can have. Conscience means self- 
knowledge. We know within ourselves the degree of 
moral standard of our mind as well as a full conscious- 
ness of our own conduct towards all things that are 
Godhke, leading us closer to our Creator, as well as 
when our conduct is such that it will tend to lead us 
away from all purity and righteousness, and finally alien- 
ate us completely from Him who knoweth all things and 
giveth every good and perfect gift. When this con- 
science is tender and fully in accord with your Creator's 
wishes, you have the promise of being placed in a con- 
dition where you will be entitled to inherit eternal life, 
which is promised to man by the coming of the Lord 
Jesus Christ. Without this childhke, simple faith in 
God's plan for the redemption and salvation of the 
world, there can not be such a thing in any way that 
we will be able to please God, or to keep our consciences 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 3^5 

tender towards all righteousness and against all conduct 
of man not in accordance with the will of the Creator 
of all things. This conscience in man is placed there 
by his Creator so that man can by the right use of it 
bring out clearly all of God's wishes and display them 
daily in the presence of his fellow-man, showing that 
his Creator is the author of all righteousness, truth, and 
holiness. Then this enables man to lay hold upon God 
in all of His blessed promises, with a firm assurance, 
when possessed with this abiding faith. 

It has been said by one that a tender conscience, 
which can come to you only by having this simple and 
abiding faith, is an inestimable blessing; that is, the 
conscience that is quick to not only discern what is evil, 
but instantly, uncontrollably impels you to shun evil as 
quickly as the eyelid closes itself against the mote. This 
demonstrates one fact: that man must not only have a 
conscience that is tender, but that he must be in such a 
frame of mind that his conscience has control of him, 
directing his conduct into all paths that are godly, as 
well as controlHng him to such an extent that his desires 
are all so naturally within him that no desire enters into 
his mind to take any other course except to live fully 
in accordance with the will of his Creator, loving Him 
supremely. Whenever men or women offend their ten- 
der conscience, they always suffer most bitterly for the 
violation. In order for men or women to fully rely upon 
their conscience, they must first test their conscience and 
see whether it is fully in accord with God's Word and 
teaching, having faith in all His promises, and that they 
are living close to goodness, leaning upon their Creator 
for wisdom to serve Him. 

It is shown how we should be purified in our con- 
science by the coming of our Savior. Hebrews 9:14:. 



366 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

"How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through 
the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, 
purge your conscience from dead works to serve the 
living God ? " It stands every one in hand to fully under- 
stand and fully know the Creator. To know God in a 
spiritual way is the beginning of wisdom. If this under- 
standing has not come to you, your conscience may be 
a perverted conscience, and there is no evil practiced 
with such freedom as that practiced from an honest per- 
verted or misdirected evil conscience, acquired by reas- 
oning from a false and. fraudulent foundation. Thus 
you see the importance of building up and forming this 
tender conscience towards all righteousness, in the right 
direction. When through faith and godly knowledge we 
have obtained that tender conscience that is necessary to 
keep oiu: footsteps fully in accord with the will of God, 
we should at all times jealously guard and keep ourselves 
in that beautiful relation towards oiu* Savior, thus pre- 
serving our conscience and keeping it tender, so that the 
least stepping aside will come upon us with such force 
that we will immediately resist all temptation, leaning 
upon the strength of godliness that is within us to sus- 
tain and lift us up above all unrighteousness and sin. 
Many may be heard to say that they are scrupulous 
and very exacting in all they do to see that they are 
taking the right coiurse in all their actions. There is a 
vast difference between tenderness of conscience and a 
tender conscience and scrupulousness. The conscience 
can always be made more tender from day to day, but 
scrupulousness often arises from some bodily or mental 
infirmity, and will lead you into many superstitions and 
doubts, and finally unbelief in all things that do not 
meet favorably with your preconceived contaminating 
opinions, formed from a misdirected course in obtaining 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 367 

the truth. One of the most remarkable conditions of 
man is how easily his conscience can be perverted and 
ruined. I^t him indulge himself in the least of known 
sins, and how easy it is for him to repeat the sin, and 
ten thousand more may be brought into his life, and his 
conscience become so perverted and hardened that the 
hardest of sins may be indulged in with impunity, slowly 
but surely dragging him down to eternal destruction ! 

The distinction of what the office of a tender conscience 
performs with and for man is that it will always, if kept 
tender, prompt him to choose the right course, but it 
does not instruct him as to what is the right course to 
pursue. It tells a man that he should do righteously, 
but does not tell him what is righteousness. So if a 
man in getting his instructions, looking after the reason- 
ing of false philosophers instead of knowing God spirit- 
ually and asking Him for wisdom to search out through 
righteousness from His Word, he will be following a per- 
verted conscience, and the more closely he pursues that 
coiu-se, the further he becomes alienated from righteous- 
ness and piuity and his Creator, and will ultimately be 
eternally destroyed for ever. I. Timothy 4:2: "Speak- 
ing lies in hypocrisy ; having their conscience seared with 
a hot iron." 

There is no stronger illustration of a misdirected con- 
science than is shown in the life of one of the most consci- 
entious and greatest of men that ever Hved, St. Paul, 
when he pursued and persecuted the Christians for the 
sake of conscience. He says that he felt within himself 
that he ought to do many things contrary to the name 
of Jesus of Nazareth, shutting up many of the saints 
in prison and persecuting them in the most bitter and 
relentless manner, as he said, thinking in his conscience 
that he was doing service in the highest degree to his 



368 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

Creator; all of which was brought to St. Paul by a 
warning and a perverted interpretation of God's Word. 
There is not a question of doubt but that St. Paul was 
instructed by (as he supposed) the most learned, God- 
fearing men that the duties which he was performing 
were all done towards God and were pleasing to Him, 
and He no doubt was so firmly entrenched in this faith 
and his conscience so free that it never entered into his 
mind that he was doing a wrong; for he was backed up 
and sustained by the great Jewish Sanhedrim, which 
was regarded as being possessed with all wisdom relative 
to what man's duty v/as towards God and men. 

In I. Timothy 3 :g is shown the kind of conscience that 
a man should have in setting an example for his fellow- 
men. You must hold the mystery of the faith in a pure 
conscience. If you are impelled to do any act in life 
and there comes even a question in your mind as to 
whether it is right or wrong, you should forbear and not 
do the act; for if it were right for you to follow the 
course, the right or wrong question would not come into 
your mind. In other words, when you are doing God's 
will, whether it is right or wrong will not come into 
question. Anything done without full faith, not doubt- 
ing, Cometh from evil and is sin, and does not emanate 
from a pure and tender conscience towards your Creator. 
Without faith you can not possess a tender conscience, 
neither can you do anything to please God unless it is 
done with an abiding faith; so without this abiding 
faith your conscience can not have any part with right- 
eousness or godliness, but you are left on the way, rely- 
ing upon your own self-willed way, which will alienate 
you further and further from your Creator until you 
reap the reward of everlasting destruction and death. 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 3^9 

CHAPTER XXXIII. 

EternaIv Life Inherited. 

There is no question that will admit of a reasonable 
doubt that mankind, when he was created and after be- 
ing alienated from God, did not have within him any- 
thing that would even give him the right to have eternal 
life. It is a truth, and must be admitted as such by all 
investigators, that man was not the possessor of eternal 
life when he was created, as is shown in Genesis 3:22: 
*'And the Lord God said. Behold, the m^an is become as 
one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put 
forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, 
and live for ever." Then it was that the Lord God 
turned Adam and Eve out of the Garden, and He placed 
at the east of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flam- 
ing sword, which turned every way to keep the way of 
the tree of life. This is positive proof that the God 
who brought man into existence did not intend that 
man should be created with eternal life within him. It 
further shows that man was not then in that relation 
towards his Maker so that his Creator desired him to 
have this eternal life. In this connection it was also 
shown that God and His associates at that time had 
eternal life within Them. They were not willing at that 
time that man should become hke unto Them in possess- 
ing within his being eternal life. It is also shown all 
through the divine Word of God that eternal life is 
only with the Father and the Son, and when man re- 
ceives this from Them, he must attain to that most 
precious nature, so that he will be like unto his Cre- 



370 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

ator sufficiently to inherit this eternal life from God 
the Father and His Holy Son, Jesus Christ, Who were 
the only Ones, we are taught, having the power to 
confer this upon man. This is only done when that 
purity of life and hoHness does exist in man, coming 
to him by being bom of the Holy Spirit, which Jesus 
Christ says that all mankind must acquire before they 
can see the kingdom of Heaven. We are sown natural, 
but raised spiritual. We occupy a soul body, and we 
should occupy a spiritual body. "And so it is written. 
The first man Adam was made a Hving soul; the last 
Adam was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit that was 
not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; 
and afterward that which is spiritual." (I. Cor. 15 45-46.) 
It can not be maintained that any of the world shall 
ever see or enter into the place prepared for the just 
who do not attain to that condition where they will and 
can inherit this eternal life. 

What right has man, who Hves in rebeUion against 
his Creator, setting up his will against the will of his 
Cod and working unrighteousness every day of his life, 
to claim the right or expect to live forever? His very 
nature is in rebellion against all godliness, which v/ill 
forbid such a thing to take place. Neither has man 
any claim upon his Creator by reason of any merit with- 
in himself, since his fall and spiritual death (coming upon 
him on account of his own disobedience) , to this most 
precious privilege of eternal hfe. Thus you can see that 
it would be impossible for man in that most sinful con- 
dition to occupy that pure and celestial home for ever 
while being possessed with that fallen and abandoned 
sinful nature. There could not be that perfect harmony 
and love in the highest degree which is necessary to Hve 
with God and His Son and the holy ones. This must be 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 371 

SO in order for there to be happiness and perfect har- 
mony in that eternal home for the righteous and holy 
ones that God has washed and made pure, to be with 
Him for ever. 

We find in man natural desires for many things of 
this world that his Creator has implanted within him 
and are a part of his very being, and we find one of the 
most cherished ones in man is a love of life. This is 
in every man and woman, and this nature grows as life 
begins to open up to their senses, providing they keep 
themselves within the right channels of life. There is 
no question but that this yearning desire for life is in man 
for a great purpose, and that is that he will so regulate 
his life in accordance with the laws of his being that he 
may occupy this earth according to God's will and be 
the recipient of that cherished life to live in eternity. 
Take out of man that great love of Hfe and the cherished 
thought of eternity, and man would be devoid of all 
ambition. Being possessed with intelligence, this would 
make him the most miserable of all of God's creation. 
The full and complete filHng of man with a sinful nature 
and ungodHness certainly brings death to both the soul 
and the body. This has been proclaimed to man to be 
a fact over and over again in God's most blessed Word. 
This proclamation of God to man can not be successfully 
denied or set at naught by any intelligent person. Then 
how can there be in store eternal life for any manor 
woman that is in that condition towards the Creator? 
It is an impossibihty for you to attempt to make your- 
self beheve that man was created from the beginning 
with a power to cause himself to live for ever. This 
power or quahty is only in God the Father and God 
the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. 



372 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

The great effort of man is to keep himself closely in 
touch with the truth of the world and the blessed tid- 
ings of his Creator in all his living and conduct; for he 
is, no doubt, a creature that can have the privilege of 
gaining the world of eternity with an everlasting joyous 
existence. This is, however, conditional upon man's con- 
forming his life so that it will be in harmony with the 
Savior. This he can do, provided he will live in accord- 
ance with the plain instructions left with him by his 
Redeemer, Who opened up the way and made the way 
more accessible. The Savior's message to us was that 
He came that we might have life, and have it more 
abundantly. It is not for man to know the real situa- 
tion beyond the grave, for we could not bear to receive 
such knowledge and remain in our earthly condition of 
preparation for a better life. We are not able to con- 
ceive of the glorious things that are prepared for them 
that love Him and keep His commandments. The all- 
absorbing solution of this greatest of problems is for man 
to regulate and direct his life in the flesh so that it will 
be approved by the Lord Jesus Christ, and then eternal 
life is assured to him. 

There is no question but that man must pass through 
the valley of the shadow of death, and then be revived 
or resurrected by the power of God, or he will for ever 
remain in the grave (Sheol). The last sting of sin is 
death, and this death is the death of the soul as well as 
the fleshly body becoming inert. Then if you are in 
such a spiritual condition that you can burst the bonds 
of the grave by God's power coming to you, you have 
overcome, and the victory is yours for evermore, which 
is gained through God's favor and mercy. It does not 
take any stretch of the imagination to see that when we 
come to our end in this world, we have not the power 



MORTALS AND niMORTALITY. 373 

within ourselves, nor is this power vested in any of our 
earthly friends, to put us beyond the power of the grave ; 
but that power is only within the Creator of all things 
Then why not trust fully in His promises and lean upon 
Him with the fullest confidence, submitting our wills to 
His, at the same time believing that He will triumphant- 
ly and abundantly give us that everlasting life which is 
with the Eternal God from the beginning? 

While eternal life is an inheritance, it does not come 
to man by reason of his being a man; for man is only 
complete so far as this world is concerned, and has much 
more to do in order to prepare himself for that eternal 
world. If man did not have to strive to gain that eter- 
nal life, he would not appreciate it when it came to him ; 
for man's appreciating qualities only go to the things 
that are hard to obtain — at least, they are the most 
appreciated by him. However, there is no question but 
that man must strive most diligently to gain that eter- 
nal Hfe in order to get it. The Apostle Paul said that 
he had fought a good fight of faith, and finished his 
course, and that there was a crown of eternal life re- 
served for him in eternity. Eternal life means a con- 
tinuation of the life that God gave to man when He 
created him for the purpose of occupying the earth. If 
this were not so, the Savior would not have called it eter- 
nal life, but would have said, "a new Hfe," or ''another 
life," clearly showing that it had no connection with the 
earthly life we now five. When we come to compare 
the life that we now live to the one continued life in 
eternity, we can then see oftentimes what a false life we 
are living. Our lives should be so lived here that they 
would be in harmony with the Hfe beyond, and they 
should be an open book, so that all could know the 
Uttermost conditions. There is no use of hiding our 



374 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

lives from our fellow-men, when our Creator stands be- 
side us, looking into every thought and deed, and will 
siurely bring us to an account for all our secret sins or 
misdeeds against Him. 

It is well known that many men are seeking to justify 
themselves in their unholy coiurse of life and seeking to 
throw themselves upon the merciful God, and try to 
make themselves believe that He will not blot out a 
single soul for sin. This is a most dangerous position 
for any to assume or harbor in their minds for a mo- 
ment, for it is a well-known fact, and observable to 
every man and woman, that the result of sin is death, 
and sin comes from a violation of law, and that the 
violation of the law of man's being or God's command, 
when fully completed, will surely bring eternal death; 
and that the position that God will not blot out a single 
soul is also contrary to the Christian doctrine and Bible, 
for God has a right to do with His own what He will, and 
this is set forth in the scripture : *' Shall the thing formed 
say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? 
Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same 
lump to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto 
dishonor ? ' * The Scriptures record many instances where- 
in God has created and raised up men for the purpose 
of accomplishing His work, and then let them pass into 
eternal perdition. ' Judas Iscariot has been spoken of as 
the son of perdition. God raised up Pharaoh that he 
might show His power in him, and then he was destroyed 
with all his hopes. No; God will surely cast out the 
persistent, wicked, and ungodly into outer darkness, the 
blackness of darkness for ever; and the righteous shall 
reap the reward of eternal life and dwell with Him 
for ever. 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 375 

Certainly the wise man or woman will flee from the 
wrath to come, which is eternal death, trusting in the 
words and commandments of their Savior and doing the 
will of God, reaping the reward of everlasting life, which 
the Righteous One will give unto them in that day. The 
Apostle Paul shows you how the Jews are brought to 
freedom from death. *'For the law of the Spirit of life 
in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin 
and [soul] death." For God sent His Son to accom- 
plish that which the law could not do with sinful flesh. 
Life is something that man has never been able to de- 
fine in any intelligent and comprehensive way, for the 
reason that no one knows the component parts that go 
to make it up. Could man be able to give one intel- 
lectual, perfect statement of what life consists of, he 
would then be able to solve the whole problem of all 
the mysteries that come before him, and this would 
place man in that high exalted position where he would 
be equal to Him who creates all things, including life 
itself, and has brought them into existence. Notwith- 
standing tha fact that we are unable to comprehend and 
fully know all that goes to make up life, yet we are 
fully aware and know that it is something which we 
possess within our very being; but we do know that we 
can say that we know we exist, and are thus able to 
say, *'I know that I am." It also enables us to go fur- 
ther and say that we know that there are other lives in 
existence that are controUing other corporeal existences 
and directing them into intelligent channels of action, 
which are presented to our senses, with such positive 
certainty that we know that those corporeal bodies pos- 
sess inteUigence. 

The question as to whether life will go on with a 
continuous existence after it has been separated from 



376 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

the body has been a much-discussed and mooted ques- 
tion by the greatest thinkers in all ages, though the con- 
sensus of the better thought is that when life becomes 
separated from the body it will continue to live on, pro- 
vided the person who possesses that life has conducted 
and nurtured that life in such a way that it hath pleased 
the great Creator of all life, and that his life is full and 
complete. The great Creator made man after His own 
image and intended that man should live for ever, if 
man had been obedient to His will. But when man 
showed himself to be self-willed and rebelled against 
God, death came upon him in both body and soul; 
after which man, in order to be reinstated where the 
grave could not hold him, must be regenerated and born 
again, or, in other words, brought back to God by His 
sacrifice. This was the condition which our blessed Lord 
occupied when in the form of man, being of such a 
spiritual natiure and power that the grave could not 
hold Him. He therefore had the power within Him- 
self to burst the bonds of death and come forth tri- 
umphantly for evermore, and in so doing opened up 
the way to eternal life to all mankind. He says that 
He came that we might have life, and have it more 
abundantly. There is a vast distinction between in- 
telligent life and non-intelligent life. There is life even 
in a perfect little germ of wheat, and when it is placed 
in connection with the natural forces which coincide with 
its natural powers, it will produce and multiply itself; 
but all this is brought about by the power of life in- 
telligence, which is the power of God, and this is the 
intelligence that was planted in man, only in a less de- 
gree, and would always have been there had not man 
brought destruction to it by his disobedience. For the 
conduct of man has placed him in a state where he does 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 377 

not possess the quality to give him eternal life, and this 
quality must be regained and given to him or he will 
for ever remain in that deathlike, annihilated condition, 
which he brought upon himself by his disobedience. 
Every man who desires intelligent eternal life must live 
so that God in Kis mercy will come to him and reinstate 
him with what he possessed, so that he will have the 
quality to bring to him that eternal life within himself. 
Jesus Christ came so that man might place himself in 
an attitude towards God, so that he might have that life. 
It has been said that the life that now is v/as given to us 
and is mortal, intelligent life. This was given to us in 
such a way that we could prepare ourselves so that we 
would be entitled to inherit that eternal life that is im- 
mortal, and is retained by us for ever, and Jesus Christ 
has made it very plain how we are to attain to that 
glorious state. This life is not complete in any v/ay, 
but is for man to use to attain to that complete life, 
which is the eternal life. Eternal life does not occupy 
a fleshly body, but is the life that occupies a spiritual 
body. It does not yet appear what we shall be like, 
yet when He shall appear we shall be like Him, and Gcd 
will give that eternal life such a body as it hath pleased 
Him. 

The science of all sciences is to seek and to know 
better from day to day your Creator, so long as He 
permits you to remain in this sphere of life. The carnal 
mind, which is intelligent life, is at enmity with God, but 
the spiritual is an intelligent life, and, if properly nurtured 
and cultivated, will and can becom.e Hke unto the great 
Giver of all Ufe. The carnal mind of man is produced by 
man refusing to submit his will to God's will, and mak- 
ing an effort through his own energies and determina- 
tions to fully rely on his own resources to govern him 



378 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

in all his actions. It has been fully demonstrated that 
when man attempts to do this he has ever made failure ; 
for it is impossible for man to do anything while in this 
state of life that will be a success or to please God, for 
the carnal mind is at enmity with God. This reference 
to success is not made from a worldly standpoint, but 
the success relative to the eternal things that shall al- 
ways remain and can not perish. This eternal intelli- 
gent life can clearly be seen to be the all-absorbing ques- 
tion for man to spend his time here in trying to investi- 
gate and live in such a manner that he may attain to 
that height intended that he should when he was cre- 
ated. Of all things that man has within him, there is 
nothing so precious and sweet as life. So man will be 
exercising the highest order of intelligence in efforts to 
attain to that ultimate end or goal in reaching that eter- 
nal life; for if that were not so, his Creator would not 
have implanted within him this greatest desire. This 
preciousness of life that is within man you can see is 
placed there so that he will be urged with a yearning 
desire to so order his life in this world that he will be 
in the attitude to inherit and receive and reap the great 
reward that is in store for him of everlasting life in the 
world to come. The Savior has said: *'Eye hath not 
seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart 
of man, the things which God hath prepared for them 
that love Him.'* In the attainment of this intelligent 
spiritual life there is only one fountain to which man 
can reach out, and that is the Creator of all life. 

For man to arrive at the greatest eminence in this 
intelligent worldly life, he should and must cultivate 
the company of the most intelligent lives in this world. 
So if you desire to attain the greatest spiritual life, you 
must associate with and keep in close companionship 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 379 

with Him who gives to all this eternal intelHgent spir- 
itual life. There is no question about the philosophy 
that in order to please your Creator you should get all 
the earthly intelligent life possible, and that this life is 
a growth, as you all know. So no doubt it is so with 
the spiritual life. You can grow and become strong in 
the knov/ledge of the spiritual life; so much so that you 
can be filled with 'the spiritual knowledge of your Cre- 
ator. When we say "knowledge, "this means wisdom 
and all other powers that man possesses by reason of 
having that intelligent life. Search the Scriptures and 
get intelligent wisdom, for this is the command of Him 
that desires that you may become more like Himself 
from day to day. "Seek to know God" is also a com- 
mand. Where will you go to do this but in the sword 
of the Spirit of life, as your Creator informs you is the 
name of His word and gospel? Oh, the depths of the 
wisdom of Him who created all things! You are asked 
by Him to apply to Him for this wisdom, and He will 
give it unto you, provided you will come to Him in the 
manner which He has directed you. God will permit 
ypu to step up higher and higher into the realms of His 
eternal kingdom just in accordance with your attain- 
ments in pleasing Him. So you must remember that 
the greatest attainment for us to arrive at is to know 
our God and the spiritual life that He desires us to have, 
which is to fit us so that we will become from day to 
day more like Him, completing us in the image of our 
Creator as much as it is possible in this life. It has 
been shown that it is possible for you to attain to such 
a height in that direction that you could be in a position 
where your Creator would not suffer you to fall into 
corruption, but would translate you, as He did one of 
the ancient prophets. There is one thing you must be 



38o MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

mindful of, and that is, never to forget that there are 
attainments in this pm-suit of life, just as there are in 
any other science that you can think of. 

You receive this spiritual life from the fountain of 
eternal life that is with your God and His Son, Jesus 
Christ, Who came to this world that we might have life. 
Let us look into some of His teachings and promises on 
this very important subject. First of all, we find Gen- 
esis 2 .7. There is shown that life is a gift of God, and 
that He created a living, intelligent soul; for it shows 
that Adam had knowledge without any education or 
tutorage, and he gave unto the animals all their proper 
names, and many other things which showed him to 
have this intelligent life of an educated human being, 
and also to be in the image and likeness of his Creator. 
Being in this form, he would have to have this intelli- 
gent Hfe; for his Creator possesses that in the highest 
and unlimited measure. It does not say that when life 
came unto him, he was a living spirit, but a living soul. 
Had Adam been a living spirit instead of being in the 
image of his Creator, he could have been just like his 
Creator, so far as intelHgent life being in him. Our God 
says in His Word and unto man: "I am a spirit, and 
must be worshipped in spirit and in truth," and nowhere 
has God ever claimed to man that he was a living soul. 

Job 12:10. Here it is declared that the life of every 
living thing or the soul and breath of all mankind must 
come from Him that created all things. 

Psalm 66:9: ** Which holdeth our soul in life, and 
suffereth not our feet to be moved." 

Daniel 5:23. Here is where the prophet charges the 
king with worshiping idols of silver, brass, iron, and 
stone, and ignoring the very God which holds his breath 
in His hands and directs all his ways. 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 381 

Acts 17 :28. In Him we live atid move and have our 
being, so that all things that we are or have or ever 
expect to be must come from Him that doeth all things 
well. In the Old Testament long life and happiness- are 
a promise to them that do His will, and He promises to 
renew our life like the eagle's life is renewed, if we do 
His will. This all is to bring you up step by step to 
the place where you can attain to that celestial con- 
dition and perfection that God will accord to you and 
give to you as He has promised — eternal life. 

II. Kings 20. Here it is shown that the Lord length- 
ened the life (that is, the temporal life) of Hezekiah when 
he offered up a tearful prayer to the Lord. God told 
him that He had heard his prayer and lengthened his 
days by healing him of his disease, and informed him 
that on the third day he should go up to the house of 
the Lord and that he should there offer up sacrifice for 
the blessings and mercies that God had extended unto 
him. 

Romans 6:4. Here we are charged that as Jesus 
Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the 
Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life; 
that is, when we cease to be carnally minded and be- 
come spiritually minded, after we have been born again 
of the Spirit. 

Galatians 2:19. For we through the law are dead to 
the law, that we might live in the spirit unto God. 

Psalm 80:18: ''So will not we go back from thee: 
quicken us, and we will call upon thy name." 

Romans 8:11 : "But if the Spirit of him that raised 
up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up 
Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal 
bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you." Jesus Christ 



382 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

was quickened in the Spirit, and went and preached to 
the spirits that were in prison. 

In Mark lo eternal life is promised by the Lord Jesus 
Christ to them that forsake all for Him and His kingdom 
and His cause. 

John 6 :2 7 : " Labor not for the meat which perisheth, 
but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, 
which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him 
hath God the Father sealed." This is that bread which 
came, down from Heaven, not as your fathers did eat 
manna and are dead. He that eateth of this bread shall 
live for ever. These are the words of the Lord Jesus 
Christ a*nd faithfully recorded by the loving John and 
should sink deeply into all those that are seeking eter- 
nal life. 

John 6:54: *' Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh 
my blood, hath [in him] eternal life; and I will raise him 
up at the last day." Here you see you have within you 
the quality that entitles you to live for ever. 

John 10:28: "I gave unto them eternal Hfe: and 
they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck 
them out of my hand." 

John 17 :3 : "And this is life eternal, that they might 
know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom 
thou hast sent." Now this knowledge of God is to know 
Him spiritually and not carnally, because the carnal 
mind can not know God or please Him. 

Romans 2:7: *'To them who by patient continu- 
ance in well doing seek for glory and honour and im- 
mortality, eternal life." 

Romans 6:23: **The wages of sin is death; but the 
gift of God is eternal hfe through Jesus Christ our Lord." 

I. John 1:2; 2:25: **For the life was manifested, 
and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 3^3 

you that eternal life, which was with the Father'* from 
the beginning, and with His Son, Jesus Christ. "This 
is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal 
life." 

Jude 21 : **Keep yourselves in the love of God [and 
your conscience tender], looking for the mercy of our 
Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life." 

Revelation 2:7: "To him that overcometh will I 
give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the 
paradise of God." 

John 5:24: "Verily, verily, I say unto you. He that 
heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, 
hath everlasting Hfe, and shall not come into condemna- 
tion; but is passed from death unto Hfe." 

I. Timothy 1:16: "Howbeit for this cause I ob- 
tained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew 
forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which 
should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting." 

Ephesians 2 7-8 : "That in the ages to come he might 
shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness 
toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye 
saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is 
the gift of God." 

Psalm 133:3: "As the dew of Hermon, and as the 
dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion : for 
there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for 
evermore." 

You are repeatedly exhorted by the Lord to come 
unto Him, that you might receive the blessings of eter- 
nal life. The Savior has said, "He that believeth on me, 
and doeth the will of my Father which is in Heaven, 
shall never see death, but pass from death unto Hfe." 
If man in his earthly tabernacle was in full possession 
of eternal life, there would have been no need of the 



384 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

Savior's coming to earth; because He would have brought 
nothing unto man which he did not possess. But man 
in his carnal nature and earthly habitation not only 
does not possess this eternal life, but he even has not 
the quality within hin so that eternal life will be given 
to him without conforming to the Savior's command- 
ments in beheving on Him and doing the will of His 
Father, and being born from above, becoming spirit- 
ually minded instead of carnally minded. 

There is no other fact so conclusively estabhshed in 
the Word of God as shown by the statements made by 
our Savior, that eternal life is a gift from God or the 
I/ord Jesus Christ. God breathed into the nostrils of 
man and he became a living soul. (Gen. 2 7.) 

*'0 bless our God, ye people, and make the voice of 
his praises to be heard, which holdeth our souls in light 
and suffereth not our feet to be moved.'* 

Deuteronomy 5:33; 6:2: ** Ye shall walk in the ways 
which the Lord your God hath commanded you, that 
ye may live, and that it may be well with you, and that 
ye may prolong your days in the land which ye shall 
possess." "That thou mightest fear the Lord thy God, 
to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which 
I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son's son, 
all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be pro- 
longed." 

Proverbs 3:2; 9:11; 10:27: "For length of days, and 
long life, and peace, shall they add to thee." "For by 
me thy days shall be multipHed, and the years of thy 
life shall be increased." "The fear of the Lord pro- 
longeth days; but the years of the wicked shall be 
shortened.'* 

Deuteronomy 5:33: "That it may be well with you, 
and that ye may prolong your days in the land.'* 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 385 

Ephesians 2:1: *'And you hath he quickened, who 
were dead in trespasses and sins." 

Romans 5 :2 1 : "That as sin hath reigned unto death, 
even so might grace reign through righteousness unto 
eternal Hfe by Jesus Christ our I/ord." 

The immediate foregoing statements of the Divine 
Word clearly show that if we are bom again of the Spirit, 
as the Savior said wejnust be, it puts us in close rela- 
tion with our L,ord,«and we become dead as to the law, 
and are kept by the power of the grace of God unto 
all holiness, until He will wash us and make us pure, 
so He can take us "unto Himself, to Hve as sons and 
daughters and reign with Him for ever. 

I. John 2 125 : "And this is the promise that he hath 
promised us, even eternal life." 

Revelation 2:7; 21:6: "He that hath an ear, let 
him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches: To 
him that overcome th will I give to eat of the tree of life, 
which is in the midst of the paradise of God." "And 
he said unto me. It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, 
the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is 
athirst of the fountain of the water of Hfe freely." 

Leviticus 17:11: "For the Hfe of the flesh is in the 
blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to 
make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood 
that maketh an atonement for the soul." 

Deuteronomy 30:15: "See, I have set before thee 
this day Hfe and good, and death and evil." 

Jeremiah 21:8: "And unto this people thou shalt 
say, Thus saith the Lord: Behold, I set before you the 
way of life, and the way of death." 

I. Samuel 25:29: "Yet a man is risen to pursue 
thee, and to seek thy soul: but the soul of my lord 
shaU be bound in the bundle of life with the Lord thy 



386 MORTAI.S AND [MMORTAUTY. 

God; and the souls of thine enemies, them shall he 
sling out, as out of the middle of a sling." 

II. Samuel 15:21: "And Ittai answered the king, 
and said, As the I^ord liveth, and as my lord the king 
liveth, surely in what place my lord the king shall be, 
whether in death or life, even there also will thy serv- 
ant be.'* 

Psalms 16:11; 21:4; 30:5; 34:11-12; 36:9; 91:16: 
"Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence 
is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleas- 
ures for evermore." "He asked life of thee, and thou 
gavest it him, even length of days for ever and ever." 
' ' For his anger endureth but a moment ; in his favor 
is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh 
in the morning." "Come, ye children, hearken unto 
me: I will teach you the fear of the I^ord. What man 
is he that desireth life, and loveth many days, that he 
may see good?" "For with thee is the fountain of life: 
in thy light shall we see light." "With long life will I 
satisfy him, and shew him my salvation." 

Proverbs 3:22; 8:34-35; 14*27; 15:24: "So shall 
they be life unto thy soul, and grace to thy neck." 
"Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily 
at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors. For 
whoso findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favour 
of the Lord." "The fear of the Lord is a fountain of 
life, to depart from the snares of death." "The way of 
life is above to the wise, that he may depart from hell 
[the grave] beneath." 

Jeremiah 8:3: "Death shall be chosen rather than 
life by all the residue of them that remain of this evil 
family, which remain in all the places whither I have 
driven them, saith the Lord of hosts/' 



MORTALS AXD UlMORTALITY. 387 

John 1:4; 5:40; 6:35; 6:48-51; 8:12; 10:10; 11:25-26; 
14:6; 20:31 : "In him was Hfe; and the Hfe was the Hght 
of men." For as the Father hath Hfe in Himself, so 
hath He given to the Son to have Hfe in Himself. "And ye 
will not come to him that ye might have life." "And 
Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that 
Cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth 
on me shall never thirst." "I am that bread of life. 
This is the bread which cometh down 
from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. 
I am the living bread which came down from heaven." 
"Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the 
light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk 
in darkness, but shall have the light of Hfe." "The thief 
cometh not but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: 
I am come that they might have life." "He that 
believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: 
and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never 
die." "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, 
and the Hfe: no man cometh unto the Father but by 
me." "But these are written, that ye might beHeve 
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that be- 
lieving ye might have [eternal] Hfe through his name." 

Acts 1 7 :25 : " Neither is worshiped with men's hands, 
as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all 
life, and breath, and all things." 

Romans 5:17; 8:6; 11:15: "For if by one man's 
offence death [spiritual death] reigned by one, much more 
they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift 
of righteousness shall reign in life [spiritual Hfe] by one, 
Jesus Christ." "For to be carnally minded is death, 
but to be spiritually minded is life and peace." "For 
if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the 



388 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from 
the dead?" 

II. Corinthians 2:16; 5:4: "To the one we are the 
savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour 
of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things?" 
"For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being 
burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but 
clothed upon, that mortahty might be swallowed up of 
Hfe." 

Ephesians 4:18: "Having the understanding dark- 
ened, being aHenated from the Hfe of God through the 
ignorance that is in them, because of the bUndness of 
their heart." 

Colossians 3 13 : "For ye are dead, and your [eternal] 
life is hid with Christ in God." 

I. Timothy 4 :8 : "For bodily exercise profiteth Httle : 
but godhness is profitable unto all things, having prom- 
ise of the life that now is, and of that [eternal] Hfe which 
is to come." 

II. Timothy 1:10: "But is now made manifest by 
the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath 
abolished [soul] death and hath brought [eternal] life 
and immortality to light through the gospel." 

Hebrews 7:16: "Who is made, not after the law of 
a carnal commandment, but after the power of an end- 
less Hfe." 

James 1:12: " Blessed is the man that endure th temp- 
tation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown 
of [eternal] life, which the I^ord hath nromised to them 
that love him." 

Revelation 22:1, 17: "And he shewed me a pure 
river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out 
of the throne of God and of the Lamb." "And the 
Spirit and the bride say. Come. And let him that hear- 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 3^9 

eth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And 
whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." 
lyuke 1:79; 20:36: "To give light to them that sit 
in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our 
feet into the way of peace." Jesus Christ said : "Neither 
can they die any more: for they are equal unto the 
angels; and are the children of God, being the children 
of the resurrection." 

John 6:53: "Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, 
verily, I say unto you. Except ye eat the flesh of the 
Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you." 
Ye are spiritually dead. 

Romans 5:15; 6:13: "But not as the offence, so 
also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one 
many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the 
gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath 
abounded unto many." The gift of eternal life. "Neither 
yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteous- 
ness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those 
that are aHve from the dead [soul death], and your 
members as instruments of righteousness unto God." 

Colossians 2:13: "And you, being dead in your sins 
and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened 
together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses." 

Hebrews 9:14: "How much more shall the blood of 
Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself 
without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead 
works to serve the living God ? ' ' 

Revelation 3:1: "And unto the angel of the church 
in Sardis write: These things saith he that hath the 
seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars: I know thy 
works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and 
art dead." 



390 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

Romans 6:ii: "Likewise reckon ye also yourselves 
to be dead [soul death] indeed unto sin, but alive unto 
God through Jesus Christ our Lord." 

Ephesians 2:5; 5:14-15: ''Even when we were dead 
in sins, hath [God] quickened us together with Christ, 
(by grace ye are saved)." "Wherefore he saith, Awake 
thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ 
shall give thee light. See then that ye walk circum- 
spectly, not as fools, but as wise." 

Proverbs 14:12: "There is a way which seemeth 
right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of 
[soul] death." 

Daniel 12:2: "And many of them that sleep in the 
dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, 
and some to shame and everlasting contempt." 

Isaiah 26:19: "Thy dead men shall live, together 
with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, 
ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of 
herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead." 

II. Corinthians 5:8: "We are confident, I say, and 
willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be 
present with the Lord." 

Philippians 1:21: "For me to live is Christ, and to 
die is gain." 

II. Timothy 4:8: "Henceforth there is laid up for 
me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the right- 
eous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me 
only, but unto all them also that love his appearing." 
This refers, no doubt, to the seed of Abraham. 

Hebrews 11 :i3: "These all died in faith, not having 
received the promises, but having seen them afar off, 
and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and 
confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the 
earth." 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 39i 

Job 27:19: ''The rich man shall lie down, but he 
shall not be gathered: he openeth his eyes, and he is 
not." 

Psalms 34:16; 49:14; 73:19: *'The face of the Lord is 
against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of 
them from the earth. "Like sheep they are laid in the 
grave; death shall feed on them; and the upright shall 
have dominion over them in the morning; and their 
beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling." 
''How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! 
they are utterly consumed with terrors." 

Proverbs 10:7; 11:7; 14:32; 29:1: *'The memory of 
the just is blessed; but the name of the wicked shall 
rot." "When a wicked man dieth, his expectation shall 
perish: and the hope of unjust men perisheth." "The 
wicked is driven away in his wickedness: but the 
righteous hath hope in his death." "He, that being 
often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be 
destroyed, and that without remedy." 

Isaiah 14 :9 : "Hell from beneath [the grave] is moved 
for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the 
dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it 
hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the 
nations." 

Ezekiel 3:19; 18:23: " Yet if thou warn the wicked, 
and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wick- 
ed way, he shall die [soul death] in his iniquity: but 
thou hast delivered thy soul." "Have I any pleasure 
at all that the wicked should die [soul death]? saith 
the Lord God: and not that he should turn from his 
ways, and live [have eternal life]?" 

John 8:21: "Then said Jesus again unto them [the 
unrighteous], I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and 



392 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

shall die [soul death] in your sins: whither I go, ye 
can not come." 

Luke 13:3: ''Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise 
perish." 

Psalms 13:3; 23*4; 48:14; 68:20; 73:4; 102:20; 116:15: 
** Consider and hear me, O Lord my God: Hghten mine 
eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of [soul] death." "Yea, though 
I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I 
will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and 
thy staff they comfort me." "For this God is our God 
for ever and ever : he will be our guide even unto death." 
"He that is oin* God is the God of salvation; and unto 
God the Lord belong the issues from [soul] death." 
* ' There are no bands in their death : but their strength is 
firm." "To hear the groaning of the prisoner; to loose 
those that are appointed to death." "Precious in the 
sight of the Lord is the death of his saints." 

Proverbs 7:27; 8:36: "Her house is the way to hell 
[the grave], going down to the chambers of death [the 
grave]." "But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his 
own soul: all they that hate me love [soul] death." 

Isaiah 25:8: "He will swallow up death in victory; 
and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces ; 
and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from 
off all the earth: for the Lord hath spoken it." 

I. Corinthians 15 :54 : "So when this corruptible shall 
have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put 
on immortahty, then shall be brought to pass the saying 
that is written. Death is swallowed up in victory." We 
die daily, for we are in sin, and sin is soul death, if 
not overcome by the gift of eternal life promised by the 
Lord Jesus Christ ; and He will bring to you that victory, 
if your hfe is in accordance with His wishes. 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 393 

Ezekiel 33:11 : "Say unto them, As I live, saith the 
Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; 
but that the wicked turn from his way and live [eter- 
nally]: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why 
will ye die, O house of Israel?" 

Hosea 13:14: *'I will ransom them from the power 
of the grave ; I will redeem them from death : O death, 
I will be thy plagues ; O grave, I will be thy destruction : 
repentance shall be hid from mine eyes." 

Matthew 26:38: **Then saith he unto them, My 
soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye 
here, and watch with me." 

John 8:51: Jesus said, ** Verily, verily, I say unto 
you. If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death." 

Acts 2 :24: ** Whom God hath raised up, having loosed 
the pains of [soul] death: because it was not possible 
that he should be holden of it." 

Romans 5:10; 6:5; 8:2: ''For if, when we were en- 
emies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his 
Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by 
his life." ''For if we have been planted together in the 
likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of 
his resurrection." This is to those that believe in Him. 
"For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath 
made me free from the law of sin and death." 

Colossians 1:22: *'In the body of his flesh through 
death, to present you holy and unblameable and unre- 
proveable in his sight." 

James 1:15: "Then when lust hath conceived, it 
bringeth forth sin : and sin, when it is finished, bringeth 
forth [soul] death." 

I. John 3:14: "We know that we have passed from 
death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that 
loveth not his brethren abideth in [soul] death." 



394 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

Revelation i:i8; 2:10: "I am he that liveth, and 
was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; 
and have the keys of hell [the grave] and death.'* " Fear 
none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, 
the devil [the evil conduct of the world] shall cast some 
of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall 
have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, 
and I will give thee a crown of [eternal] life.'* 

Ezekiel 33:8: **When I say unto the wicked, O 
wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak 
to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall 
die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine 
hand." 

What shall a man give in exchange for his own soul? 
It would profit him nothing if he should gain the whole 
world and lose his own soul; for there is nothing in eternal 
death and everything in eternal life. Intelligent men 
and women will at once see how important it is for them 
to so shape their lives that they may not come into a 
condition where they will reap the wrath of their Creator, 
which is eternal spiritual death, and trust in the words 
of their Savior, doing the will of their God, and reap 
the blessed promise of everlasting life, which the Right- 
eous One will give unto them in that day. 

Had man this eternal life within him, there would 
have been no need of the command for him to seek the 
Lord in order to attain unto eternal life. The Scriptures 
abound with places wherein it is shown to you that 
by righteous living and submitting your will to the 
will of Him in whom all life exists. He will give it unto 
you. You can not inherit something which you have 
already in your possesion. You always inherit something 
which you do not possess, so that life (the kind which is 
referred to herein, intelligent, spiritual, eternal life) is 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 395 

inherited from the Creator of man, and he who does not 
conduct himself in accordance with God's plans and His 
commandments to man can never see this eternal life. 
' * He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not 
the Son of God hath not life." "Father, I have kept 
those that thou hast given me, except the son of per- 
dition, and no man can pluck them out of my hand." 

If any look over these passages of Scripture who have 
not been born of the Spirit, they should at once call upon 
their Savior to fill them with that Holy Spirit and take 
out of them all carnal-mindedness. Man can not be 
carnally minded and be in the condition to have the 
right to inherit eternal life, neither can he be the possessor 
of eternal life in the flesh; but he can have the quality 
within him so that he may, by the mercy of his Creator, 
inherit eternal life. All you who are investigating and 
seeking to attain to that position where you may be able 
to reap this spiritual, eternal, and everlasting life, and 
dwell with God for evermore, must earnestly strive to 
acquire and be the possessors of that higher spiritual 
nature. 

Writers and philosophers, in the earlier ages, did very 
much writing upon the question of man and his nature. 
One of their greatest themes was man's soul, and very 
many differences of opinion have been expressed by them 
as to its nature, location in man, and where its ultimate 
destiny is to be after it has been separated from the 
corporeal body of man. These writers, not being con- 
versant with divine revelation and following after their 
pagan gods, have made very erroneous assertions upon 
these questions; for the reason that it was impossible 
for them in their benighted spiritual condition to ad- 
vance the higher thought relative to man. This the- 
orizing and philosophizing on these questions of the soul 



396 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

commenced to be shown in the books, Cicero claims, 
about the time of King TuUus, who reigned as the king 
of the Romans from about 673 to 641 B. C. The dis- 
cussions raised by the various writers covered these ques- 
tions: What is the soul in man? Where is it located? 
and What becomes of it after it is separated from the 
fleshly body? None of these philosophers were able to 
arrive at any definite reHable conclusion in solving these 
questions. So far as man being able to solve them by 
reasoning them out from a human and scientific stand- 
point, is concerned, it can not be correctly accomplished. 
As to the location and the fixing of the destiny of the 
soul, their efforts have been very unsatisfactory to them- 
selves. History relates that Aristotle handled those ques- 
tions with wavering belief, and many who wrote upon them 
did so with such clouded opinions that it was almost 
impossible to determine what their conclusions were. 
Some located the soul of man in the heart, some in the 
liver, some in the brain, some throughout the whole 
body, and others in the blood. The one who located 
the soul in the blood was Empedocles. Moses, in the 
Law which he gave to the children of Israel all down 
through the record, recognizes the blood as the very life 
of all people. The efforts to analyze and ascertain the 
different component parts of the soul and its powers 
have been more futile and unsatisfactory than those 
concerning its location. Their philosophy on the possi- 
bilities of the soul containing something within itself to 
give it power to maintain its own existence, to live and 
have intelligent life after being separated from the body, 
has been utterly without any results or any satisfactory 
proof. This failure, however, could hardly be otherwise, 
because the philosopher in all cases who had the subject 
in hand had little or no knowledge whatever of divine 



I\IORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 397 

revelation or any wisdom as to the unseen eternity. It 
is a well-known fact that when man is entirely separated 
and alienated from his God, he can not have within him 
the power of reasoning upon the unseen things; for the 
reason that he has never had them brought to his mind 
from a spiritual divine revelation from his Creator. It 
is recognized and declared from revelation that wisdom 
can only come to mankind direct from his God ; for man 
has been requested over and over again in divine revela- 
tion to seek wisdom from his Creator: so that any cor- 
rect philosophy on eternity must be aided and assisted 
by divine power, and these pagan philosophers, worship- 
ing their pagan gods, could not reach out and grasp the 
mighty things that emanate from the spiritual God. 

The theories which those writers have advanced rel- 
ative to the soul of man after it became separated from 
the earthly, corporeal body are as follows: Some have 
claimed that some souls have entered into animals of 
various kinds in passing from one animal into another. 
Others have claimed that they entered into demons. 
Others maintained that they have gone into some heath- 
en god. Others have advocated that the soul, passing 
from the body at death, entered into some other man 
and returned back to earth, insisting that it continu- 
ally makes this round from one being to another, and 
finally returns to its original body. They have main- 
tained that the soul goes into and receives every con- 
ceivable kind of torment, until it may become purified 
so that it can again occupy some particular himian body 
prescribed for its home. Other writers maintain that 
there is a general soul fund, from which every human 
being extracts the soul; and when they have no further 
use for it, it returns back to this general fund, to be used 
by some corporeal human being again. 



398 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

You see all this philosophy and writing upon this to 
the heathen writers unsolvable question has been to 
no purpose whatever, so far as enlightening mankind in 
regard to his eternal destiny; but has only tended to 
befog and bewilder the minds of many people who have 
been endeavoring to search out for themselves, without 
the aid of divine wisdom, their home in eternity. The 
Creator of all things, in creating man and woman, made 
them perfect beings ; so when he created Adam and Eve, 
for the purpose of occupying the earth until He should 
take them unto the spirit world and unto Himself, He 
did so with the view of having their perfectness to an- 
swer for the purpose of their earthly sphere only. In 
this creation He gave man the power to will his own 
destiny, subject only to the laws of man's Creator rel- 
ative to man's environment and His commandments to 
him as to how he should conduct himself towards his 
Creator and his fellow-man, with the declaration that, 
** The day thou violatest these commands, thou shalt surely 
die" [soul death]. Man, foreseeing and knowing his pow- 
ers, sought to gratify himself in following his own will, in- 
stead of at all times submitting his will to the will of 
Ms Creator. Right here is where the great fall of man- 
kind took place. We find man wandering off in his dis- 
obedience and becoming carnally minded, completely ig- 
noring his Creator in all things, eventually forgetting 
his God and becoming completely alienated from Him. 

Man's Creator, ever since the separation of man from 
Him, has endeavored to win man back to Himself by 
His love and kindness unto him, prescribing certain du- 
ties and sacrifices for man to perform, so that he could be 
brought back to his first pure and holy relation to his 
Creator. In the final effort to bring man back to his 
pure state, God came to earth in the person of His Son, 



]\IORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 399 

Jesus Christ. His purpose in coming was to lift the 
great load from the world of mankind of all the Adamic 
sins, and placing man in that same pure and holy con- 
dition that he was in when he was first created and 
placed in the Garden of Eden. Since the removal of 
this sin which came upon mankind by the fall of his 
first parents, all children born into the world are pure 
and holy beings, being in the same condition of purity 
that Adam and Eve were before the fall. This was 
foretold in that prophecy where it was said: **In those 
days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten a 
sour grape, and the children's teeth are set on edge." 
The Savior said unto them, ''Suffer little children to 
come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the 
kingdom of heaven." For they in their pure and holy 
estate, being without guile and without sin, would pass 
from their earthly soul existence into a heavenly spir- 
itual existence, God giving them eternal life, clothing 
that life with an ethereal body in place of a soul exist- 
ence and fleshly body. As is the earth earthy, so shall 
they be of the heaven heavenly. Sown a natural soul 
body and raised and recreated into an ethereal, spiritual 
body. Instead of being in the image of our Creator, 
we shall be like Him: for *'it doth not yet appear what 
we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, 
we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." 

When we reach the stature of men and women, so 
that we no longer can be considered little children in the 
earthly sense, we become responsible for our conduct 
and relation to our Creator, and must live in all good 
conscience toward Him in doing His perfect will. "Hear, 
and your soul shall live." If we depart from our God 
and wander off, committing the great sins of the Deca- 
logue, and become carnally minded and at enmity toward 



400 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

our Creator, and do not follow the admonitions brought 
to us by that still, small voice (the Holy Spirit), we be- 
come dead in all things toward our Creator, and can 
have no part with Him. Any man or woman passing 
out of this world with this carnal-minded nature, which 
is at enmity with God, is for ever lost and is "cast out 
into outer darkness,'* the blackness of darkness for ever. 
All men and women who go off and engage in sdn and 
degradation, becoming filled with this carnal mind, are 
at enmity with their Creator; and in order for them to 
be reconciled to Him, they must be regenerated and re- 
claimed from this sinful condition by being bom again, 
as declared by our Savior unto Nicodemus. Such re- 
generated ones the Lord calls His Httle children, and 
warns the world against offending any of these little ones. 
This new birth is that of being born of the Holy Spirit, 
bringing you back to God and creating in you a spiritual 
nature; becoming spiritually minded, being filled with 
love for Jesus Christ, in all spiritual things, and being 
fully dispossessed of that carnal nature coming into man 
by reason of his indulgence in sin. Those who come back 
into this spiritual condition become spiritually discern- 
ing, and spiritual things are at all times uppermost in 
their minds, ready and willing to do the complete will 
of their Father in Heaven in keeping His commandments. 

While in this condition, if you are called upon to 
enter into eternity, God will give you eternal life, which 
will be accompanied with a holy spiritual mind and an 
ethereal body to dwell with Him for ever in accordance 
with His divine will and pleasure. 

Matthew 10:28. Jesus said for us to fear them who 
could kill both body and soul in the grave. 

Psalm 49:15: God has promised to redeem our souls 
from the power of the grave. 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 4OI 

Hebrews 10:39. We are asked to believe to the sav- 
ing of the soul from death. We are taught that our 
faith must be strong enough for the saving of the soul. 

James 5 :2o. We shall, by our admonitions, persuade 
others, so that we may be accorded the saving of a soul 
from death. 

Revelation 6:3. When the second angel poured out 
his vial upon the sea, it became blood, as the blood of 
a dead man, and every living soul died in the sea. 

Revelation 22:14: ** Blessed are they that do his 
commandments, that they may have right to the tree 
of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city." 

Hebrews 4:12. The word of God is sharper than any 
two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder 
of the soul and spirit and of the joints and the marrow, 
and is a discemer of the thoughts and intents of the 
heart. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

Martyrdom. 

It is a well-known fact that Christianity has come to 
the world of humanity t u-ough the greatest of trials and 
tribulations. The early martyrdom of its devotees was 
something appalling, and many wonder why such a ter- 
rible slaughter of righteous men and women should take 
place in order to establish the most golden truth for 
man's eternal welfare. The purity of the doctrine and 
the wonderful possibilities foretold and claimed by its 
followers, that awaited all them that had hearkened to 
its precepts, no doubt was one of the many causes of all 
this destruction of humanity. The pagan and heathen 
world could not believe the most wonderful claims that 



402 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

they put forth; and, without investigation, proceeded 
at once to bring all their evangelistic work to a disgrace- 
ful end, by inflicting the greatest of persecutions against its 
teachers and adherents. The world not being conversant 
with the prophecies of the Hebrew Bible and, further- 
more, the followers of the prophecies not seeing clearly 
the full meaning of the doctrine of the coming of the 
Messiah caused almost all of them to become arrayed 
against the new Christian doctrine, and they joined with 
the heathen world to stamp out the influence of this 
new religion. The world, with its heathen and pagan 
worshipers, has always been against the spiritual teach- 
ings and doctrines brought to the world by the Lord 
Jesus Christ. 

When the Savior first commenced His Messianic work, 
He proclaimed to His prophets and to the world that He 
and His doctrines would be rejected, and that He must 
suffer and go down to a humiliated grave, and triumph- 
antly rise again and ascend back to His former home in 
Heaven, before His work would be completed. We must 
remember that our Savior was one of the greatest of 
martyrs, and endured the same willingly for the purpose 
of accomplishing the redemption of a dying world. It 
was foretold that bringing to humanity the opportu- 
nity of inheriting eternal life would create great trib- 
ulations and trials to all humanity upon the earth, by 
arraying one man against another even unto temporal 
death. 

There is another great and good reason why all right- 
eousness must be persecuted and its followers compelled 
to come up through great tribulations and trials, for this 
is necessary to purify the very inner nature of men and 
women. The Lord loves a humble and contrite spirit. 
Thus, you see, by all trials and troubles that we are 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 403 

called on to come up through (if we are of the household 
of faith), we receive that which is necessary to make 
us pure. 

Persecution by the most powerful is always resorted 
to when they fail to find argument to refute the position 
or doctrine taken and advanced by the weak in number 
or in power in this world; this the Savior well knew 
when He proclaimed to man that persecution would 
come to His cause and its followers after His departure; 
for there could be no successful showing made to refute 
the truth and righteousness to aid man to reach the goal 
of eternal life. Almost always you will find that the 
truth is on the side of the persecuted; for righteousness 
does not persecute, nor do those who have the spirit of 
righteousness fully imbued within them offer persecu- 
tion to those who disagree with them. Then, again, we 
find that prior to the coming of our Lord nearly all of 
the old prophets in one way or another prophesied that 
the Messiah when He came would be persecuted unto 
the most humiliating and terrible death. This was to be 
endured and accepted without resistance against the per- 
secutor, in order that a beautiful example might shine 
forth and great good come to a dying world; the ful- 
fillment of the great God's plan to prepare man so 
that he would be in a fit condition to occupy eternity 
in a spiritual temple instead of an earthly, corruptible 
body, which enables man to inherit eternal life. 

Our Savior instructed all of His followers to patiently 
endure persecution for His sake as He had endured for 
our eternal welfare, informing all that great reward was 
in store for those who come up through tribulations in 
order that the cause of righteousness might be made tri- 
umphant throughout all the earth. Many of the great 
secrets of revealed rehgion do not come to us until we 



404 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

are humbled by persecution or affliction so that we are 
aHenated from our arrogant feeHngs and are brought 
down to the very depths of despair, being forced to lean 
upon that Blessed One who wipes away all tears. 

The followers of the Savior immediately after Plis 
departtu^e were taken before emperors and magistrates 
of all kinds, and many times without any trial were 
condemned to die in every manner of way, and history 
informs us that they all submitted to their fate without 
faltering in the least in adhering to their Master's in- 
structions in carrying out the course they were told to 
pursue in carrying the Christian doctrine to a dying 
world. The instructions and doctrines we all know are 
the purest and most holy that ever did or ever can come 
to man; and if adhered to, will surely put man where 
he will inherit everlasting life, entering into that celestial 
abode the glories of which no man can conceive. 

The tenets and doctrines of this perfect spiritual life 
practiced by true followers are so exacting and perfect 
relative to the conduct of man towards his Creator and 
his fellow-man that the one who has never been regen- 
erated and been born of the Holy Spirit and become 
spiritually minded can not readily enter into such a life 
with feelings of approval; to him the perfectness re- 
quired of the followers of those beautiful teachings seems 
almost impossible, and he, without a thorough investi- 
gation, rejects them as nonsensical and foolish notions 
to entertain; many alleging that they can not be carried 
out by their adherents. Objectors having this state of 
mind will contemptuously deride and persecute those 
seeking to live that higher life, drawing nearer to their 
Savior. 

When the Christian religion was brought to mankind, 
the whole world was filled with unbelief, so far as its 



MORTALS AXD nBIORTALTTY. 405 

precepts were concerned. All the heathen and pagan 
nations had their own mode of worship, and the organ- 
ization of their form of government depended upon the 
perpetuity of the kind of worship practiced by such par- 
ticular government. Then for a people to attempt to 
practice another mode of worship would be the means 
of overthrowing their government. Thus, you see, in or- 
der to maintain the supremacy of their government, they 
would be compelled to destroy any other form of religion 
or worship. Further, there is an eternal warfare between 
the world as it is constituted and carried on by degraded 
and fallen man and the perfect world conducted by the 
Creator of all things. There is no question but that 
there will always be continual strife between the spir- 
itual-minded man and the one possessed with a carnal 
mind. This being so, when the carnal-minded are in the 
ascendency of government of man, the ones who are fol- 
lowing after righteousness by the direction of the Holy 
Spirit will be derided and persecuted just in proportion 
as the carnal-minded man has become civilized ; and this 
will ever be until the new birth comes into the lives of 
all men and women. 

The records are full of historic facts coming down to 
us of many thousands who suffered as martyrs as far 
down as the sixteenth centiu-y. The first three hundred 
years after our Savior ascended the destruction of the fol- 
lowers of Him and His doctrines, by those who were in 
authority in the different countries where the Christians 
sought to enlighten the people, was appalling. Thous- 
ands of them were put to death in Rome ; probably more 
than in all other countries combined. During the year 
A. D. 79 it is related that over five thousand animals 
were destroyed in combat by men who were condemned 
for various causes. The burning of Rome caused Nero 



4o6 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

to put to death something over two hundred Christians 
at one time, alleging and charging them to be incendiaries 
of the city; but history informs us this was false; that 
Nero set fire to the city, and took this course to shift 
the odium of the charge by his citizens that he was the 
one who set the fire, he wanting to place himself before 
his people as being entirely innocent of any such charges. 
It is said that if man were not pressed down by af- 
flictions and taught the lesson of hmnihty, showing him 
clearly his own weaknesses, he would become arrogant, 
self-willed, overbearing, and tyrannical in his nature, so 
that it would be impossible for him to worship his Maker 
in that humble spirit necessary to receive the reward 
that he would be seeking. It is a fact that the Christian 
religion can refer to its martyrs almost without number; 
but we do not wish to urge that as being positive evi- 
dence in establishing the Christian reHgion as being God- 
given to man, or as placing beyond any doubt the fact 
that Jesus Christ established the Christian religion among 
men. Nor do we claim that anyone dying as a martyr 
necessarily proves or establishes as fact that the Chris- 
tian religion is true beyond any doubt; for we are well 
aware that a man can die for his faith while he is beHev- 
ing a falsehood, just as well as he can when believing a 
truth. But when men or women sacrifice their fives 
for the principles which they befieve to be right, having, 
as they must have, full faith and confidence in the course 
they are pursuing, and lose their lives therefor with will- 
ingness, such persons must be accorded such sincerity 
that they can not be classed as knaves, and if they are 
willing to sacrifice their fives for such principles as they 
believe to be right, they must have full faith in the 
truthfulness of the cause that they are endeavoring to 
hold up to the world. In the case of the Christian martyrs 



IMORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 4^7 

these facts do exist: all who laid down their lives did 
so in order to establish a principle, that advocated and 
held up the truth to mankind, which consists in loving 
3^our Creator with all your might and soul, and loving 
your neighbor as yourself, and further teaching the prin- 
ciple of the righteous doctrine of doing good to all man- 
kind, and not evil, and to worship the great God who was 
the foundation of all this love and righteousness. How- 
ever, we maintain that the martyrs and their bloodshed 
are all witnesses to the truthfulness of the coming of the 
Lord Jesus Christ, and that He established the Christian 
religion among men. 

It has been said that the Christian religion has made 
martyrdom sublime and sorrow triumph. Men dying 
for the truth as they were instructed by their Savior 
who died for them (knowing, as we do, that He was the 
truth and the life to everyone that believed upon Him) 
is not dying for one's faith or for one's country; it is 
voluntarily smrendering up your earthly existence in 
order that the truth (Jesus Christ) may come to a dying 
world. Men and women have died for principles that 
have tended to elevate men in their earthly life, and as 
time passes on their lives grow brighter and brighter 
for the sacrifices made. How many times in the history 
of the world have good men been condemned and de- 
rided by their fellows for advancing a golden truth or 
principle which the w^orld could not readily comprehend 
because of the condition of their surroundings and their 
deluded and uninformed minds, and it only took time 
for the world to accord to them praise and the justice of 
their position that they so justly deserved. The men 
or women who Hve and die martyrs in advancing any 
cause for the uphfting of their fellow-men, bringing them 
nearer to God, their memory has always been honored 



4o8 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

and revered by the foremost and righteous-loving people 
of the world ; and if faithful in their lives, they will be 
accepted by their Creator as of the overcomers in His 
kingdom. 

If men or women will examine themselves carefully 
and, if possible, br ng to themselves the semblance of 
feeling they must have in them in order to voluntarily 
surrender up their lives for the benefit of their enemies, 
they will then begin to realize what it was for those 
early Christian Apostles and Christian Fathers who sought 
to missionize the whole world with Jesus Christ's doc- 
trine and the Christian faith. Can we look at them in 
the true Hght and not feel that they were strengthened 
and buoyed up by a Power beyond what this world can 
give to make such sacrifices for the very ones that were 
demanding their lives from them? We must remember 
and recognize the fact that the followers of the Lord 
Jesus Christ were possessed of intelligence of a high 
order, and were men and women as of to-day, standing 
ready at any moment to die for their Master and His 
cause. They went to the torture so readily that history 
relates that the emperor Julian of Rome issued an order 
to stop their persecution in the arena and at the stake, 
as it was no punishment for them to die in that way 
for the cause they were bringing to a dying world. [See 
Julian]. The feeling that was imbued in them, of deem- 
ing it a great privilege to die as a Christian mart)a-, was 
the only reason why the Roman government put a stop 
to their persecution for a time. 

All this martyrdom of the early Christians fully es- 
tablishes the prophecies and foretelling of the Lord of 
their destruction for the cause of righteousness and the 
doctrines that He had given unto them. The Savior 
foretold to all His Apostles how they would be perse- 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 409 

cuted and scourged for His sake, and He fully advised 
them of the course to pursue in passing through their 
great trials, telling them that the world was at enmity 
with Him and His doctrine of spiritual religion. This 
is fully illustrated to you to-day, for the world is now 
at enmity against the Christian doctrine, and the Savior 
who established it with man. The very cogent and po- 
tent reason of this is that mankind in his carnal nature, 
or being carnally minded, can not be in any other atti- 
tude toward all Christian righteousness. The spirit of 
the world is to praise dead saints and persecute those 
whose lives are full of the most splendid examples and 
precepts, setting forth the greatest of principles to en- 
lighten and elevate man to draw him closer to the truth, 
enabling him to rise to that higher living, while they are 
in touch with humanity in this world. 

When we look at the cause for which the blood of the 
Christian mart)^: was shed, we can not help seeing what 
a purifying and ameliorating effect it must have had 
upon all men and women who have observed it in all 
ages, and who are possessed with that spirit of enmity 
towards all purity of life. No man or woman who has 
died for any other cause than Christian righteousness 
can justly be held up to the world as one dying a martyr. 
It has been said that when we read of that noble cause 
for which some have died as martyrs, we om-selves often 
think we could pass through that great ordeal; but when 
put to the very test in acting, we fail to even bear a 
provoking word from those whom we pretend to love 
most. Oh, what a great lesson the early Christian mar- 
tyr brings to us! teaching us to be self-sacrificing toward 
all our fellow-men and for the truth brought to us by 
our Creator. 



4IO MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

The Savior said: "Remember the word that I said 
unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If 
they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; 
if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also." 
(John 15:20.) ''Wherefore, behold, I send unto you 
prophets, and wise men, and scribes : and some of them 
ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye 
scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from 
city to city." (Matt. 23:34.) ''Therefore also," said 
the wisdom of God, "I will send them prophets and apos- 
tles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute." 

The followers of any other doctrine or reHgion or 
faith relative to man's future welfare were never perse- 
cuted as those following the Christian faith. The re- 
ligion of Jesus Christ has ever been persecuted and rid- 
iculed, and those who espoused its cause very unjustly 
treated by the world. The great doctrine of righteous- 
ness and purity of life, held up before th e world as a 
guide for men to escape everlasting destruction, is so 
divergent and contrary to all unrighteousness and un- 
holy living that the very spirit of the world is diamet- 
rically opposed to righteousness and righteous living, and 
thus the holy life condemns the unholy man in his world- 
ly career, and he therefore rebels and rails upon it, and 
stamps it and its followers with his virulent and wicked 
condemnation. The God of our salvation desires that 
we should be in an attitude towards Him so that we are 
ready and willing to make any sacrifice necessary in our 
lives in order to build up His kingdom on earth as it is 
in Heaven. "O God, thou wilt not despise." We are 
commanded to present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, 
acceptable unto God; and are told that this is our reas- 
onable service to our Creator. The sacrifice that we are 
to offer is a spiritual sacrifice that will be approved of by 



MORTALS AND niMORTAUTY. 41 r 

our Savior; for our bodies are spiritual houses, being 
thus established as a gift by the Savior making the Holy- 
Spirit accessible to mankind. We are taught to with- 
hold nothing from our God; being at all times ready 
to become martyrs unto Him in all things, for this is 
the way unto eternal life. "Many men and women live 
unknown until persecution drags them into fame and 
chases them up to Heaven. Their ashes flew, no mar- 
ble points us where," but their spirits are given eternal 
life, to dwell with their Heavenly Father for evermore* 



CHAPTER XXXV. 
Rkugion. 

It is man's nature to worship some higher Power 
than himself, or some unseen Influence which he imag- 
ines within his own mind can bring to him some favor 
that man in his position on the earth does not possess. 
This favor or advantage is expected to be obtained 
through the worshiping of this imaginary Being or In- 
fluence. Some are wilHng to grant it power in their own 
minds to deliver them from all harm while occupying 
the earth; others have given it the greate* power of 
granting them special privileges after they are taken 
from this world. In almost all cases primitive man has 
manufactured with his own hands an imaginary object 
to represent the great Being that he feels or hopes will 
bring to him these favors. The objects made are called 
idols, and have existed almost without number and rep- 
resent in form all kinds of imaginary beings, imitating 
many kinds of animals, reptiles, or a combination of both 
and other different creatiures of God's creation. The 



412 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

worship of man has extended to very many of the plan- 
ets, almost always making an image representing the 
planet in the character of some kind of a human being, 
being carved out of stone or constructed from brass or 
gold or silver, always depending upon his financial abil- 
ity to obtain the more costly material to construct them 
from. These images or idols are worshiped and applied 
to for all kinds of insignificant favors and privileges, 
with no regard as to whether the having or practicing 
them would be right or wrong in very many cases. 
Where they do attempt to recognize that there are things 
which should not be indulged in, the attempts are very 
primitive and of little consequence, so far as the ele- 
vating of mankind to a higher and nobler life is concerned. 
The most of this idol-worship has been practiced 
among the nations of the earth who have had no written 
language or one that is very deficient; yet it has been 
practiced by some of the most powerful and prominent 
nations that have been known to exist, with a very high 
order of earthly information relative to their civilized 
conduct, they being advanced in all the sciences known 
to man, with the exception of those that have come to 
mankind since the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, all 
having practiced idol-worship prior to the coming of the 
God of Moses to the Hebrews, the God who calls Himself 
to them Jehovah, teUing them that He never had any 
beginning and would exist throughout all eternity. This 
God came to them and led them, and was, as it were, 
their leader and instructor by object-lessons for about 
four hundred years, leading them up and out from their 
great sin of idol- worship to worshiping Him as their ever- 
living and true God and the Creator of all things. All 
the other peoples of the earth continued in their idol- 
worship until the coming of Jehovah in the person of 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 41S 

KJs Son Jesus Christ our Lord, Who instructed all His 
tollowers to carry, preach, and teach His doctrines and 
the good tidings which He had taught them to all the 
nations of the earth. These doctrines and blessed prom- 
ises were that all men who would believe upon Him and 
do the will of His Father that was in Heaven should not 
perish, but have everlasting life. 

The Hebrew writings and the New Testament to- 
gether, brought to man in its complete form by the coming 
of the long-promised Messiah, Who was in the person of 
the Lord Jesus Christ, constitute the only living spirit- 
ual power that mankind is enabled to reach out and 
take hold of to Hft him up and out of his alienated, down- 
fallen condition, which came to him by his choosing to 
follow after his own will instead of the will of his Cre- 
ator. This spiritual power brought to man the possi- 
bility of his laying hold upon the Holy Spirit in a way 
that will enable him to become regenerated and made a 
new creature in Christ Jesus, Who will then, if his life 
has been consistent with his calling, reward him with 
everlasting life. 

All idol- worship is the outgrowth of man's disobedi- 
ence toward his Maker and going off into ways of his 
own choosing, endeavoring to mould and fashion his 
own life and destiny without assistance from any higher 
power. History shows that man became a wanderer 
upon the earth, entirely separated from his Creator and 
endeavoring in his own weak way to carve out his des- 
tiny in this world and for eternity. After he had con- 
tinued in this condition for many thousands of years 
without any change, his Creator in His due time sought 
to regain him and bring him back unto Himself, and 
instituted sacrifices and covenants, demanding service 
from man to Himself; all of which was for the purpose- 



414 IVIORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

of reclaiming him and lifting him up out from the mis- 
erable practice of idol-worship to the worshiping of the 
ever-living and true God. Then his Creator sought fur- 
ther to complete his redemption by sending His only- 
begotten Son to redeem him from his fallen condition 
in a spiritual way, which would fully establish within 
him that regenerating power of the Holy Spirit. This 
spiritual influence exercised over man's nature is the 
greatest evidence to prove the truthfulness, power, and 
efficacy of the Christian reHgion. 

Here is shown the great contrast in the temporal as 
well as the spiritual condition of mankind while dictating 
his own course or living after the divine instructions. 
The one holds man almost, as it were, like a vise, in a 
degraded state; the other lifts him up and out into a 
beautiful, loving, and obedient atmosphere, with an abid- 
ing faith, possessing an eternal hope, and expecting the 
blessing of an eternal life, enabling him to dwell with 
his Maker for ever. ''They that hear shall live. For 
as the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the 
Son to have Hfe in himself." The testimony that comes 
down to us through all the ages is that all the different 
modes and forms of rehgious worship of man that have 
been inaugurated and put into practice by the carnal 
and mortal mind of man have been shown to have kept 
him in the very depths of spiritual degradation, always 
dragging him downward instead of lifting him upward and 
imparting to him that uplifting, intelligent spiritual na- 
ture that can only come to those who have been bom 
of the Holy Spirit, which is the gift of God to man 
through His Son Jesus Christ. These teachings of Jesus 
show us how we shall live, taking on the spiritual nature 
and living that higher hfe, conscientiously practicing all 



MORTALS AND niMORTALITY. 4^5 

A^irtues toward God and man, which brings to us that 
peace and joy that nothing else can do. 

The Hebrew children were practicing idolatry when 
the God of Moses came to them and informed them of 
the fact that they were guilty of one of the greatest of 
sins. It was then and there that Jehovah commenced to 
discipline them, in various ways, and showed them by a 
multitude of examples that He was their only salvation, 
performing miracles of mercy before them when they 
obeyed Him and miracles of calamity and destruction 
when they disobeyed Him. These conditions never failed 
to follow one after the other when evidences of disobedi- 
ence took place or the showing of obedience. Examples 
of this kind of instruction were practiced and took place 
over and over again while Jehovah was showing them 
the awfulness of idol-worship and exemplifying the ex- 
ceeding sinfulness of its practices, showing them that it 
brought nothing good to them, but in all cases brought 
them into trouble and destruction. When you go into 
countries where the people practice idol- worship, you at 
once notice the crestfallen and downcast look upon the 
faces of its devotees. It seems as if the whole country 
were blighted by some depressing power that shows very 
plainly upon its inhabitants. The progress of all idol- 
worshiping countries has been nothing in thousands of 
years, and in some cases they have retrograded from the 
condition they were in at the time their reformer or 
leader brought that sinful practice to them. Their heath- 
en condition in some cases is appalling, they having no 
information or knowledge of the things of this v/orld 
and possessing no wisdom or understanding about the 
world to come. This being a fact, it can be plainly seen 
that if those people were to be left alone in that condition 
for ever, adhering to the idol-worship, they would always 



4l6 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

remain in that depressed heathen condition. This cer- 
tainly shows clearly to all fair-minded persons who are 
investigating and searching after eternal things and di- 
vine wisdom that man, without assistance from some 
greater power than himself, would for ever remain in 
the depths of ignorance as to any higher spiritual nature. 
Some of the greatest opposers of the Christian religion 
have asserted and feebly attempted to maintain that all 
enlightenment of the world is due to education and cult- 
ure in man becoming fully conversant with all nature 
and highly instructed in the language that he uses as 
well as other languages of other nations, and, in fact, 
that having a full knowledge of all things observable by 
man would equip him with all the powers that he now 
possesses throughout the civilized world; but this is a 
great error and can not stand the light of a full investiga- 
tion of the claim made. The history of the world cer« 
tainly shows that if man had not been brought into 
God's eternal truths, he never could have elevated him- 
self any higher than he was before God had brought to 
him the light of his Gospels, teaching man to search 
them in order that the light of eternity, by the aid of 
God's wisdom, might be turned on and opened up and 
made plain to him. Man is informed that to know his 
God is the beginning of wisdom, which can only be ob- 
tained by having it revealed to him by his Creator. 
All things will be made known to man necessary to en- 
able him to reach the goal that God intended he should, 
providing man will diligently pursue the course that he 
is directed to in God's Word. The great beyond is op- 
ened up to man by revelation from God, and in no other 
way, and this life is only given in proportion as man is 
able to receive the same so as to insure his eternal wel- 
fare, and in proportion as he draws near to his Creator.^ 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 417 

In no other kind of worship is man directed or informed 
that he shall seek wisdom from the object of his worship. 
If such were the case, man could not receive wisdom of 
eternal things from man-made books or man-made idols 
of stone or wood. 

The knowledge of letters and things of the science 
of this world is learning, and the cultivating of them 
in all directions observable to man does the work of 
bringing mankind up to be a great people or nation 
upon the earth, but does not implant within his breast the 
thing that will bring to him eternal life. This fact be- 
ing unknown has caused many reasoners to assert that 
this giving man an understanding of the unseen things 
can be done by cultivating the mind from an educa- 
tional standpoint: but this is an error that has caused 
many well-meaning people to stumble relative to the 
eternal things and their everlasting welfare. To illus- 
trate we will take, for example, the ancient Greeks, and 
we find that their enlightenment was of the highest in 
all the sciences and learning of the world, and during 
the history of this nation we find it producing some of the 
most profound and far-seeing philosophers that ever lived 
upon the earth; yet, so far as their information or wis- 
dom as to eternal things went, they practically had no 
understanding, being left absolutely in darkness, as were 
all idol- worshiping nations. Plutarch, a Greek philos- 
opher and biographer, was heard to say that there might 
be such a thing as a village in their country that had no 
public school, but who ever heard of any place where 
there were no temples to go into to offer up worship 
to some idol? It has elsewhere herein been shown that 
Alcibiades, one of the most learned of the great Greek 
philosophers, at one time, on his way to the temple to 
offer up prayer before the idols, was stopped by Socrates, 



41 8 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

the greatest of all the Greek philosophers, who called 
to him and ordered him to desist from offering any 
prayer until some one should appear and come to teach 
him how to pray; that is, to impart to him spiritual 
wisdom, for Alcibiades possessed all knowledge of the 
things of this world, but had never been in communica- 
tion with the spiritual God, Who only imparts spiritual 
wisdom to man. The advancement of mankind in the 
eternal unseen things has been brought him only by his 
spiritual communion with Him who said that He is a 
spirit and must be worshiped in spirit and in truth. 
When man meets these conditions fully, then his Creator 
confers upon him His wisdom that will lead man into 
all truths and fill him with that spiritual knowledge neces- 
sary for his highest spiritual good. 

Job 28:12-14: "But where shall wisdom be found? 
and where is the place of undertsanding? Man knoweth 
not the price thereof; neither is it found in the land of 
the living. The depth saith, It is not in me: and the 
sea saith, It is not with me." 

One of the greatest evidences to the writer's mind, 
to be placed before the reader, that Jesus Christ, the 
I/ord from Heaven, estabHshed the Christian religion, 
is the fact that our Savior started his labors very closely 
to the time when the Roman Empire came into existence; 
that is, when Rome had thrown off the republic and 
established a government by an emperor. This govern- 
ment was one of the most powerful ever carried on by 
men, and usurped the greatest power over the entire 
earth, destroying its enemies in the most relentless man- 
ner. During the time that it took the greatest pride 
in its government Jesus Christ and His religion and fol- 
lowers were a special object of this government's perse- 
cution, and many thousands of the followers of the Chris- 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 4^9 

tian faith were put to death for no other reason than 
that they proclaimed to the world their faith in the 
Lord Jesus Christ, and that He had brought to the 
world the good tidings that all might have everlasting 
life upon the condition that they would conform to the 
will of their God. These persecutions were carried on 
in part to maintain the integrity of the government and 
the perpetuity of idol-worship to many unknown gods 
created from their own imaginations, practicing at the 
same time Stoicism, asserting that life was a gift, and 
that when that life became degraded and unbearable 
they had a right to take it and give it back to the donor; 
this was the cause of suicide, so prevalent and the blood 
of its victims flowed so freely through the empire that 
the world has been caused to observe with great aston- 
ishment. On the other hand, the Savior taught man 
that when he was in trouble by reason of his being against 
himself, he should lean upon Him. He said: ''Take my 
yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and 
lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." The one 
kingdom and government has long gone into decay, with 
its religious faith and all its earthly powers, backed up 
by the mightiest and most resolute of humanity. The 
doctrine of the Lord Jesus Christ and His kingdom was 
started and perfected by Him in the short space of three 
years, and had to sustain it the utmost temporal weakness 
possible; and yet it has gone on and attained the great- 
est power, and now permeates every part of God's foot- 
stool, and is destined to go on to all eternity; for His 
kingdom is an everlasting kindgom and shall have no 
end, and shall prevail until every knee shall bow and 
every tongue confess that the Savior is Lord of Lords 
and King of Kings. 



420 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

The Apostle James says: "Pure religion and un- 
defiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the 
fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep him- 
self unspotted from the world." True and devoted re- 
ligion has been said to be that feeling in man of rever- 
ence, accompanied by piety and adoration towards the 
Deity, which affects the heart so that man is ready and 
wiUing to do the complete will of his Creator at all times, 
daily worshiping Him and calHng upon the aid of the 
Holy Spirit to assist him in living in that attitude towards 
his Maker that will be pleasing to Him. Further, man 
must put full reHance upon God's promises ready and 
willing to render that simple and childlike, trusting faith 
in Him, feeling within his very nature that his Creator 
will at all times bring nothing but good to him. One 
whose mind and very soul and nature is thus directed 
towards the Creator of all things will duly strive fer- 
vently to conduct and direct his life so that his Creator 
will be pleased, and in so doing he has a promise of 
being rewarded with everlasting life, and will dwell with 
Him for ever. 

When mankind maintains those relations towards the 
Giver of every good and perfect gift, there will always 
be that higher and nobler feeling toward his fellow-men. 
On the other hand, if man does not bear the right rela- 
tions in love and purity towards his Creator, he can not 
maintain the proper relations towards his fellow-men. 
This is universally known to be a demonstrated fact. 
Thus you see that your first duty is towards your Cre- 
ator, and when you do fully comply with all His com- 
mandments, you at once become right in all things with 
the world. In order for you> to come within the pale 
of God's righteousness, you must be born of the Spirit, 
which is becoming fully endued with God's Holy Spirit; 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 4^1 

I 

then you will be so that you can and will withdraw your 
feelings from worldly things and put your affections upon 
your Creator and eternal things, which in a great meas- 
ure will separate you from this world and all of its allure- 
ments. Then your understanding and knowledge of your 
Creator will be enlarged and your life made more ele- 
vated and joyous. This preparation of building up your 
very inward nature brings to you in the highest sense that 
nature which will, if nurtured, grow more and more like 
your Benefactor and Creator. True righteousness of the 
heart always makes every man and woman more happy 
in this life, for the soul within is filled with joy, and thus 
everything around them shines brighter and brighter, 
and this makes those who follow in that greatest of 
pursuits more loving in their nature and ready and will- 
ing at all times to sacrifice in behalf of all suffering 
humanity, which so many times mankind is required to 
do. Further, they are expected to seek to make more 
happy and cheerful everyone who comes in touch with 
them, and it is God's request for them all to become of 
one (spiritual) mind with each other, and to become of 
one mind with their Creator. This must necessarily fol- 
low in order for all to dwell together in perfect harmony 
throughout all eternity. If man would only reflect for 
a moment in relation to his eternal welfare, he must at 
once see that there is only one possible course for him 
to pursue; for he well knows that he can not shape and 
mould his life relative to eternal things except through 
an interposition between him and his Creator, the One 
who has the power to aid and assist him in so doing, be- 
yond the grave. It can not be questioned that the 
Power that brings man into existence makes no mis- 
takes, and He tells man that it is His good will and 



4.22 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

pleasure that he shall life for ever, and pleads with him to 
conform his live in accordance with His will. 

The piety and religious life of man should be daily- 
practiced within his own home, using his daily efforts 
to fashion and shape his life while in the family home 
so as to make it, as much as lieth within him, Hke the 
eternal home that awaits all them who are found perfect 
in that day. No true follower of the I^ord should neg- 
lect the sanctity of the home. It is there you can find 
out more readily a man or woman's true piety than in 
any other sphere of Hfe. The moral virtues that men 
are often heard to extol above all else do not measiu-e 
up to the demands of God's kingdom. The religious 
purity required from us by our Creator can not be meas- 
ured with any degree of allowance with the virtues of 
morality; for the virtues of morality are solely appli- 
cable to man's relations one to the other, while occupying 
the earth, and can not be made applicable or used in 
connection with the higher spiritual life, except wherein 
they are carried out by virtue of a man or woman having 
that higher spiritual nature within. When man was 
first placed upon the earth he had within him that higher 
spiritual nature, but by his disobedience he fell and be- 
came spiritually dead. This is why his Creator seeks to 
reclaim him and bring him back by the aid of the new 
birth, and place him in that higher position whereby he 
may be enabled to inherit eternal life. 

All mankind are endeavoring to console themselves 
in the worship of imaginary inanimate beings, many of 
which have been formulated and brought into existence 
out of the mortal mind of man, and possess no quality 
but what has been given to them by this mind. These 
are the people which the true and living God, or the true 
Spiritual Being who created all things, has directed His 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 423 

followers to use every effort to awaken up out of their 
deluded condition, and to bring to them the knowledge 
of the ever-living spiritual God who dwells on high, and 
comes down from above to man and lifts him up into that 
blessed inheritance of everlasting life. No belief in any- 
being other than a spiritual Creator of all things can 
avail man anything, so far as being able to reap a reward 
of living in the life to come. All followers of that re- 
ligion that center in that spiritual being recognizing Jesus 
Christ as their Savior and God can receive the new 
birth and have a part in God's eternity. All the differ- 
ent doctrines taught outside of the Christian Bible do 
not give any promise of a life beyond the grave. Some 
teach the transmigration of one life into another and 
different lives or beings; others teach that by obtaining 
the favor of some imaginative being you will have great 
happiness and joy and prosperity in the earthly life. 

Zoroaster flourished about 1200 B. C. Buddha made 
his appearance about 543 B. C. (which is the most au- 
thentic date obtainable) and established a system of re- 
Hgion in Asia. Confucius appeared in China, and was 
born (according to Chinese history) in the kingdom of 
l/oo, June 19, 551 B. C. All these men stood in their 
countries in the same relation to their civilization that 
Moses stood to the Jews in the Western civilization. 
Their different teachings have had their peculiar effects 
upon the world's history. We are not enabled here to 
go into any detail or to philosophically discuss their 
merits or demerits; but to-day almost all of their in- 
telligent adherents who have come in touch with the 
reHgion of Jesus Christ recognize the spiritual and higher 
rehgion taught by our Savior. When we compare any 
of the teachings of these reUgions that have been started 
by man's wisdom with those of the Lord from Heaven, 



424 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

we at once begin to see their weaknesses. They are all 
lacking in that spiritual power, which is the power of 
God, that is so vividly displayed in every portion of the 
Christian religion. In visiting the different nations of 
the earth, on coming into those which are not following 
the Christian religion, you can readily notice the dead 
and blighted condition, the effect that is produced by 
the religion which they are following, and it is noticeable 
in the very manner of their living, and seemingly all 
their efforts avail them nothing in attempting to make 
any advancement in lifting up their fallen condition. 
There can hardly be any question of doubt now but that 
all of those men who started the different religions other 
than the Christian religion established the same as a 
part of the law of their country, and yet they have no 
doubt received much of their knowledge and grafted it 
into their law from the law laid down in the Jewish Bible 
by Moses. When they put their system into operation 
in their country, they made the variations that exist so 
they could adopt them to their people and nation, claiming 
at the same time for themselves to have had a visitation 
coming to them from unknown powers to man. Some 
of our greatest investigators have persistently maintanied 
and claimed that Zoroaster had been with the Jews be- 
fore he got out the Zend Avesta. In the Vedas holiness, 
purity, meditation, and wisdom are considered mightier 
than all the gods. Hindoo virtue consists in quiet living, 
reserving the right to live in sensuality and in accord- 
ance with one's own will, so that it will be in sympathy 
with all beings. As sin is uprooted, infinite knowledge 
opens. We find in these religions where they have set 
out good morals. They have made statements like this: 
"Do not unto others what you would not have them do 
to you." 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 425 

Notwithstanding that these people have been following 
these rehgions for thousands of years, we find them al- 
most in the same degree of civilization that they were 
in when the authors of these religions first diffused them 
and brought them to the knowledge of their people. 
You will further note that the very minute they lay hold 
upon the vital, spiritual religion of Jesus Christ, there 
immediately comes over them a complete change in their 
person, as well as in their manner of living, showing an 
entire different personal appearance, lifting them up high- 
er into the light of God's eternal righteousness. One of 
the converts from those heathen faiths explained it in 
this way: "The faith which I have been following was 
from beneath, and had no spiritual, uplifting power; but 
when Jesus Christ's religion came to me from above, 
it took hold on me and lifted me up into a higher sphere, 
that enables me to look out into the great beyond, which 
had never dawned upon my mind before." There is no 
question but that every heathen idolatrous worshiper 
who abandons their course of living and adopts the life 
and religion established by the Savior and receives the 
Holy Spirit becomes endued with that higher soul nature 
that creates within them a greater power and feeling of 
assurance that they are possessed with that nature from 
their Creator that they will be granted the privilege of 
reaping an everlasting life. There is no religion that 
satisfies the longing of mankind like the religion estab- 
lished by the Lord Jesus Christ. This has been testified 
to by many thousands all down the different centuries 
since the Savior was on earth and established His re- 
ligion. And this is why the Christian religion is so pow- 
erful and so convincing among the children of men. 
They are enabled to lay hold on a power that will bring 
to them great peace, joy, and satisfaction, enabling them 



426 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

to have that restful and contented feeling, having im- 
plicit faith that their Redeemer is able to perform that 
which He promises. 

The religion of Mohammed was established and main- 
tained by the power of the sword. For quite a number 
of years they pretended to worship God in the way that 
the Koran directs them. Mohammed pretended to the 
people that the Koran was given to him by the angel 
Gabriel. This resulted in Mohammed being translated 
from Mecca to Jerusalem and thence to Heaven. His 
benighted followers think that his footprints are left on 
the stone that was on the top of Mount Moriah, where 
Abraham offered up Isaac as a sacrifice, and when he 
reached Heaven he really beheld some of the greatest 
signs of his Lord. Now this is what the Mohammedans 
are bound to believe. The real story told about his as- 
cent to Heaven with the angel Gabriel is that an animal 
miraculously appeared that resembled a white mule, 
which they called Barak, on which they rode to Jerusalem 
while they performed certain rites, and then they as- 
cended up through the heavens, meeting Adam in the 
first, and Jesus Christ and John in the second, Joseph in 
the third, Aaron in the fourth, Edris in the fifth, Moses 
in the sixth, and Abraham in the seventh. They were 
taken up to the boundary tree, then to God, who re- 
vealed to Mohammed what he revealed. Then they 
heard a voice proclaiming, *'I have established my com- 
mandments, and made them easy for my servants." 

The Ottoman Empire is backed and maintained by 
this religion, which Mohammed established, and the se- 
curity of its government rests upon the maintenance of 
this faith. This is just the way the governments of all 
the ancient and pagan world were maintained, clear down 
to and including the Roman Empire. The religion of 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 427 

t 
the Lord Jesus Christ does not depend upon the main- 
tenance or upholding of any earthly government. It 
does not require of man to maintain any government 
excepting God's government, in adhering and keeping 
the laws of His commandments and practicing that strict- 
ness and rectitude of life which enables men to become 
perfect and pure in their lives towards their Creator. 
There can not be any intermingling of the Christian re- 
ligion with the affairs of the world. The world and all 
its laws made by man are at enmity with God and God- 
made laws. Jesus Christ declared over and over again 
that the world was at enmity against Him and His cause, 
and that all of the inhabitants of the earth were pos- 
sessed with a carnal and sinful nature, and while in that 
condition could do nothing to please His Father in Heav- 
en. God has declared that the carnal mind can not have 
any part with Him and His eternal celestial home, for 
it is impossible for those who are possessed with that 
mind to please Him. 

The religion of Zoroaster probably is fashioned after 
the Jewish religion more than any other advanced or 
set up by man in the world. The most thorough in- 
vestigators of the life of Zoroaster and the place where 
he lived claim that he no doubt was familiar with the 
Bible of Moses, as the writing in the Zend Avesta shows 
marks of almost positive evidence that Zoroaster was 
conversant with the Jewish Bible or the laws laid down 
by Moses in the Old Testament Scriptures. The estab- 
lishing of this rehgion for Indo-Europeans included all 
the Parsees and was brought forth at or near the north- 
eastern part of Irene, not far from Bactria, in all prob- 
abiHty a Httle before the appearance of the Zend Avesta, 
which pubUcation is placed by the best historians about 
1200 B. C. The word Zend was attached when trans- 



428 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

lated, and means "translation." The two names fur- 
ther include the whole Parsee sacred literature, ancient 
and modem. Zoroaster was by birth a Bactrian and 
lived under a king called Vistaba, who adopted his re- 
ligion. It is supposed that his birth took place shortly 
before the appearance of the Avesta, not more than 
1250 B. C. Zoroaster claimed to have supernatural in- 
fluence with the Deity, and that he could call upon 
Him with questions and he would receive answers. He 
always called upon Him in this manner: ''O Thura 
Mezda [meaning God], the maker of the natural world.'* 
Then followed the question, and then the answer was 
given; and all through the supposed divine revelations 
this manner was universally followed. He taught his 
followers that there was a good principle creating and 
bringing into existence good things, and an evil power 
creating and bringing into existence evil things, which 
was continually thwarting the power of the good. The 
original book or work was supposed and claimed to have 
been written upon twelve hundred ox-hides; it is also 
claimed that when put into book form it contained 
twenty-one volumes; at the present time most of it is 
placed in one volume, although some authors and writers 
have put it in three volumes. 

One of the principal things that it is claimed Zoroas- 
ter shows to have put in his Zend Avesta was the recog- 
nition and apparent knowledge of the Deity. The teach- 
ings of the doctrine of eternal life and of better things ex- 
isting than in this present world were not set out in his 
work so as to gain any inspiration in that direction by 
the adherents of his religion. Their whole course was to 
please their deity by practicing things that would be ac= 
ceptable to him, so that his favor would be granted unto 
them and bring them great privileges, joys, and long life 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 429- 

while inhabiting the earth. There is no advancement 
or intimation of any promise of an eternal life or the 
promise of any assistance in building up its adherents 
so they could lay hold upon a higher life by reason of 
any holy power or deity coming into their lives and 
strengthening them in their efforts to become stronger 
in any righteous or devout living. The teachings leave 
man stranded upon his own resources at all times, only 
expecting that this deity will let him alone and not in- 
flict any condign punishment upon him while occupying 
the earth. It is their custom also to call upon that evil 
spirit to appease his wrath and feelings toward them so 
that he will not come and force upon them any evil cal- 
amity that he has within his power to make their lives 
miserable while occupying and living in the flesh. 

As has been shown, there is no religion, other than 
the Christian rehgion, that has ever been formulated 
and proclaimed to mankind for his guidance in this life 
to bring to him any eternal Hfe, but only to bring to 
him happiness and comforts and great privileges in the 
life in this world. The great reason why the Christian 
rehgion is such a blessing to mankind is that it does 
bring to him the many great promises that are in its 
teachings, and one of the greatest of promises is that of 
everlasting hfe and the coming to him of God's Holy 
Spirit to sustain him and build him up in his efforts to 
live a life so that it is possible for him to attain to that 
height of purity and righteousness, so that he may reap 
the reward of the great promise that God has revealed 
to him, of Hving throughout all eternity with his Creator^ 



430 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

Thej Summing up of the Evidence That Jesus Is the 
Christ from the Admissions of His Enemies. 

Let us take a review of what these ancient pagan and 
infidel writers have admitted and estabHshed beyond all 
question of doubt in the minds of any who earnestly 
might attempt to follow them into disbeheving the gen- 
tdneness of the Christian's Bible. In their efforts to 
maliciously tear down the gospel of God they have fur- 
nished some of the best proofs of its authenticity, for 
it is a weU-known and admissible fact that anything ad- 
mitted by the enemies of the Christian doctrine must 
be taken as true and should be accepted in the same 
manner as testimony taken in any cotut of justice, 
wherein any admissions made understandingly by the 
defendant against himself are all assumed to be the 
truth. These writers, all of them, are of the most learned 
and best informed men of all writers who ever attempted 
to write against the Christian religion; for they all Hved 
at the time when all the books and records of the early 
advocates were putting forward the great gospel of Jesus 
Christ, which promised eternal life to the world, and if 
there were any true and authentic grounds for showing 
the untruthfulness, they had them at their command. 
They admit that at the time of Herod the Great, king 
of Judea, an illustrious reformer and a good man came 
before the people, who was called John the Baptist, and 
that the poHtical condition of Judea, GaHlee, Samaria, 
and Syria at the time recorded of the origin of the New 
Testament was just as represented by the Christian his- 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 431 

torians, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John; that in these 
days a general expectation obtained all over the East 
that in Judea should arise some one who would obtain 
the empire of the world, and that this expectation re- 
ceived its foundation from the prophets of the Bible only. 
They admit that Jesus Christ was bom in Judea during 
the reign of Augustus Caesar, and that He did establish 
and start a sect of people called the Christians, and that 
the doctrine and religion which He taught and established 
was introduced by extraordinary means and was called 
by pagan worshipers **a new and magical superstition,'* 
and that this reHgion was started in the country called 
at that time Judea. They admit that the circumstances 
of the nativity of Jesus Christ were extraordinary, rel- 
ative to His earthly parentage and His humble and ob- 
scure birth, and while an infant He was carried down 
into Egypt by His parents because of the persecution of 
Herod, and as soon as that ceased He was brought back 
to Nazareth. Jesus Christ by some means performed 
wonderful miracles in healing the sick, opening the eyes 
of the blind, and raising the dead, and taught a doctrine 
which was wholly new. Some of His disciples were ob- 
tained in Judea, who from humble birth and circumstances 
became conspicuous in Judea and in other provinces cf 
the Roman Empire. Jesus Christ was publicly executed 
as a criminal in Judea, at or near Jerusalem, by the or- 
ders of Pontius Pilate, when Tiberius was emperor of 
Rome. They admit that the doctrine and religion of 
Jesus was called by the pagans *'a maHcious superstition," 
was suppressed for a time, but broke out again and not 
only overran all Judea and the neighboring provinces, 
but went direct to Rome, and at the time of Tacitus 
tb?re was an immense multitude of them; the doctrine 
aid religion estabUshed by Jesus Christ was opposed by 



432 MORTALS AND IMMORTAIJTY. 

the government of Judea and by the Roman government, 
and the advocates, professors, and followers of this "per- 
nicious superstition" were persecuted even to the most 
cruel and ignominious deaths by Nero, Domitian, Trajan, 
and other Roman emperors. They admit that the Jewish 
state was overthrown and its cities and temples destroyed 
with an immense slaughter of the people, and the multi- 
tudes of its prisoners were sold into slavery and disposed 
of all over the world, and those who were left to live were 
despised by all in accordance with the predictions of 
Moses and the I^ord Jesus Christ and His Apostles. 
They admit that the followers of Jesus Christ were peo- 
ple who made confession of their faith, and on stated 
times or days they met to worship Jesus Christ (as some 
god, as they would have it) during their meetings and 
solemnities; they would bind themselves through their 
faith, believing in the reward of righteous living and the 
destruction for evil conduct, not to engage in any evil 
of any kind and to practice every good virtue. They 
had their several feasts as a separate religious commu- 
nity, and they would not make any compromise with 
worshiping with the idolatrous Gentiles. This religion 
was regarded by the Roman magistrates and philosophers 
and priests as *'an excessive and ignorant superstition," 
and they considered it obstinacy on the part of its ad- 
herents to so tenaciously adhere to it and practice it. 
They admit that John the Baptist was cruelly put to 
death and unjustly murdered in prison by Herod the 
Tetrarch, and that Jesus Christ was bom of a very hum- 
ble and obscure woman. 

Religion is the only crime proved against the Chris- 
tians, as appears from all the records of their enemies, 
on account of which they suffered death. But in the 
year A. D. 70, before those who had seen and known 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 433 

the Savior had died, Jerusalem and the temple were de- 
stroyed and completely demolished by the Roman army, 
and all of the awful and tremendous calamities which 
had been foretold and most vividly described by Moses 
and Jesus Christ were fully visited upon that disobedi- 
ent and gainsaying people. These Christians, in adher- 
ing to the commandments left to them, had become well 
organized and were under the superintendence of the 
bishops and deacons. These followers of their most cher- 
ished hopes closely followed out the worshiping of Jesus 
Christ as their God and Savior, while being surrounded 
by thousands of Jews and Gentiles and barbarians of all 
countries and persons of every rank and condition of 
life, knowing at the same time that they were doing so 
at the risk and sacrifice of their Hves and the loss of all 
their property as well as the friendship of the whole 
world. They closely adhered to all the teachings, con- 
forming to all the morals and religious requirements. 
The arguments taken from the most eminent writers and 
most masterly diction at the time our Savior was on the 
earth portray their weakness, when we attempt to com- 
pare them in any way, to set at naught the sublime 
teachings and promises of the blessed Master, and it 
must be admitted that these writers and philosophers 
were most ably equipped with learning and having full 
knowledge of all the laws, both temporal and sacred; 
at the same time they had all the evidence fresh at hand 
for them to write from, so they could show any and all 
the facts, if there were any that could be shown, to 
prove conclusively that the Christian rehgion was entire- 
ly false; but with all their efforts, you can see that they 
have most signally failed. They have established the 
New Testament in their effort to deny the authenticity 



434 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

of the doctrine that was claimed by its followers to have 
been of divine origin. 

Take all their admissions made from the New Testa- 
ment and their quotations therefrom; it would not take 
much clothing or adding to of all these statements and 
admissions to complete the doctrine and have almost the 
whole frame of the Christian religion, differing in color 
and interpretation a little from that found in the books 
and put upon it by our Apostles and the Christian leath- 
ers, as well as by the best theologians. In the difference 
of the interpretation no one of to-day can hesitate for a 
moment to consider. So that all they have done is to 
deUver a most valuable testament, testifying of the gen- 
uineness of the Scriptures and the time when the Chris- 
tian religion started, and that it was started by the 
I/ord Jesus Christ, and that in the earHer ages, as well 
as now, they worshiped Jesus Christ, and that in the 
earHer ages, as well as now, they worshiped Him as 
their God; that His death on the cross was a propitia- 
tion for all the Adamic sins for all time to come; that 
all who would keep His commandments and beHeve upon 
Him would reap a reward of an everlasting life. 

When we come to survey and look over minutely 
and see what labor, sacrifice, tribulations, and trials were 
endm-ed by the Apostles and their immediate followers 
in bringing to the world God's message through His Son, 
with the great and blessed promise to man of eternal life, 
we should be filled with unbounded thankfulness. We 
of His followers at this day and age should be very zeal- 
ous for the church which Jesus Christ estabhshed and 
sacrificed His Hfe for and purchased with His own blood; 
and further, knowing that the blessed Savior is at the 
head of the church, and loves the church, and calls it 
His "bride," everyone should be ever ready to maintain 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 435 

it in the same standing and purity that it had when He 
was with the world. Profane and bibHcal history teach us 
that heresies will so easily creep into the church, and 
men of false doctrines will attempt to change its pure 
doctrine established by the Savior into ideas of their 
own, and thus destroy all of its effectiveness and saving 
spiritual power of mankind. We should use every pos- 
sible righteous energy to keep it pure. The church is 
an institution established by the Savior, and should be 
kept with the same high standard that He charged His 
Apostles to keep the faith. It should be the effort of 
every man and woman who enters into its portals as 
followers of the I/Ord Jesus Christ to use all their ener- 
gies in a prayerful way to keep the church perfectly pure 
and spotless from the world's contamination. For as the 
Lord Jesus has taught and showed us that the world is 
at enmity against Him and His church, therefore the 
smallest deviation from the teachings of its founder will 
at once be taken up by the world and used to overthrow 
its influence. Jesus Christ alone is the head of the 
church. It is to be kept in its purity by adhering strictly 
to the truth as proclaimed by the Lord Jesus. 

In our effort to keep the church in the manner in 
which the Savior would desire it, we should be governed 
wholly by what we positively know from the Scriptures 
our Lord and Master would have us to do relative to 
any of its teachings. The policies advanced to the world 
in order to draw men and women into its portals should 
be such that all those could enter as members of Christ's 
church without any differences of opinion, looking to 
their Savior for salvation only. Anything relative to 
the conducting of any of the services should be done 
with a prayerful and devout purpose, asking, "Would 
Jesus Christ do this if He were here?" or, "Will Jesus 



436 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

put His stamp of approval upon what they are about 
to do?" The church should never attempt to do any- 
thing with which the doctrine of Jesus Christ is not 
fully in accord. The Savior wants the church at all 
times, and its followers, to be fully in keeping with divine 
truth. Men and women are so apt to stretch their con- 
sciences in applying their particular ideas of government 
of the church. In doing so they go to such an extent 
that the sanctity of the church is crippled and injured 
so much that its influence with other men and women 
is entirely destroyed. The people of the world finally 
dechne to enter its portals because of the dissensions 
which arise among its own followers. "But if I tarry 
long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to be- 
have thyself in the house of God, which is the church 
of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth." 
(I. Tim. 3:15.) Therefore the church, in order to be the 
great uplift of all people, should be kept in such a way 
that everyone who goes into its sanctuaries should feel 
as if in the presence of God, for the express purpose only 
of worshiping Him in accordance with His will. Its 
members are obligated to cherish the spirit of Jesus 
Christ in all things, in the church, and make known 
His gospel to others, not in a perverted way, but in that 
pure spiritual way in which the Lord so tenderly left 
it to us. Then we will be setting forth that great love 
of the Lord for man. 

The instructions in all cases should be, to have a 
profound love for the Lord, and in the same manner love 
to all His fellow-man. God establishes His church for 
the purpose of enlightening mankind. And when men 
are entreated to come to its portals, they should be given 
that invitation with no other thought than that they are 
to be instructed how to become better acquainted with 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 437 

God and His true precepts. The church is truly a hospital 
for all those who are sick and all scarred up with sin of 
the world, and its doors should be open at all times for 
all the prodigals of the earth. The church is God's open 
way to the portals of Heaven, and if that way becomes be- 
fogged with heresies, avariciousness, and self-opinionated 
people, how dark will be the way, and the light of God's 
glory will be entirely shut out from its midst. It has 
been said, on the other hand, that there ought to be such 
an atmosphere in every true church of the Lord Jesus 
Christ that any man or woman attending divine serv- 
ices should take on the contagion of Heaven itself, and 
take home the spirit and fire of the beautiful and divine 
teachings to kindle the altar from the place they came. 
When men and women associate themselves together and 
form a company of people for the purpose of dispensing 
and teaching the doctrine of Jesus Christ, they all should 
be devout followers of the Savior's teachings, and should 
be men and women that have been born of the Spirit in 
the same manner which the Savior said to Nicodemus, 
that a man must be bom again or he can not see the 
kingdom of Heaven. 

The Scriptures furnish you a test to be applied to 
every man or woman, so that you may know whether 
they have been regenerated; and if it appears that they 
have not, they should be treated by you as one who is 
sick with sin until they have been born from above. 
The followers of this church so established should live 
such a life that they will keep themselves unspotted from 
the world and love one another with that divine love that 
the Lord imparts to all those who are true followers of 
His. Never among those who are God's children, working 
for God's kingdom, should there be any dissension in the 
least; but 'all should use every effort to make the lives 



438 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

of their brothers or sisters fed the joy and comfort that 
Cometh to all from on high who are doing God's v/ill. 
Men or women who aspire to become ambassadors of the 
living God should first examine themselves, to see whether 
•they are in accord with God's teachings and that they 
are true children of His. When they take on the vows 
and ordinances to ever after represent their Savior to 
the world, they should duly examine themselves to see 
whether they are following the course and teaching the 
people in the same way that the Lord did, and whether 
their teachings and conduct would be approved of Him 
if He were with them. It can hardly be maintained that 
any ambassador of the Lord can enter the sanctuary in 
Christ's church and there offer a discourse on any matters 
of a worldly nature to his listeners when they have as- 
sembled to hear Jesus Christ, and Him crucified, taught 
to them. Should the disciple of God's law, teaching 
eternal life, attempt to deliver a discoiu'se on any of the 
sciences or the management of governments, or extol the 
merits or demerits of the advocates of any of these 
principles, or advance any personal political ideas or 
scientific ideas to his hearers of any of the followers of 
any of the sciences of government, which might be at- 
tempjted to be enforced in the government in which he 
lived, it would be using and desecrating God's church 
for a purpose that tihe Savior never instructed should be 
done. When the Lord Jesus Christ entered the temple 
of the Jews and there found hov/ they had desecrated it 
by permitting avaricious and worldly men to enter it 
and use it for the purpose of advancing their worldly 
interests in any manner, he called them money-changers 
and scourged them and drove them from the temple, 
saying that He could not have His Father's house made 
a den of thieves. 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 439 

It has been said by someone: "Unless the church 
of Jesus Christ rises up and proves itself the friend of 
suffering humanity, as the friend of God, to be in sym- 
pathy with the poor of our land, and takes the great 
position of Moses to mankind in their great need, and 
uses its efforts in Jesus Christ's way to withstay the 
hand of oppression, instead of bolstering up some cor- 
rupt political party, the church will become in a measure 
a defunct institution, and Jesus Christ will again go 
down to the beach and invite plain honest fishermen to 
come into an apostleship of righteousness, manward and 
God ward." We can not claim in any way, and be hon- 
est and fair in our assertion, and at the same time acting 
in the fear of God and expecting His righteousness, to 
assert and claim that Jesus Christ ever advanced the 
doctrine of* using force or coercion in any way to bring 
men to Him or His doctrine. Never did He offer or 
suggest the passing of any law to prescribe to men, com- 
pelling them to walk in any particular channel, or to 
keep them from stepping aside from His teachings and 
precepts, or to compel them to espouse His blessed cause 
in His effort to save mankind. The doctrine practiced 
and adhered to by many of the followers of the Lord 
Jesus Christ and God's teachings, that God's hand is in 
and governing the destiny of nations in leading them 
up higher and higher, so that the government may live 
closer to God, by any direct influence of Him in direct- 
ing the men who control and run those nations, is not 
well taken, for the reason that the government of man- 
kind has always been a failure and always will be a 
failure, and further that God does not control the will 
of man and man-made governments. The governments 
of man are always formulated and brought into existence 
after the fashion of the corrupt will of man, who can; 



440 MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 

never be in any other condition while he occupies the 
earth in his present state. The position taken, that God 
governs the destiny of nations, might be urged to be 
tenable if God did not create man as a free moral agent, 
thereby giving him the power to mould and shape all 
his affairs after his own sweet will, only seeking and im- 
ploring man to come up and out of his carnal-minded 
condition by His tender and loving instructions. The 
Pharisees of old took the course of their alHance with 
the government of mankind for the reason that they 
desired to have the influence and power of that govern- 
ment on their side to sustain them in the course and 
manner of worship that they had towards God. This 
resulted in crucifying their own God when He came 
to them. 

God always taught through His inspiration and His 
Son, Who came to earth to use the great law of love, to 
lift up the world and bring it out of its fallen condition 
and estate, which was dragging it down to destruction. 
Yes, the Savior always contended and cautioned His 
followers to be sure to use the most potent way of bring- 
ing and drawing your enemies to you by treating them 
with the greatest kindness and love and drawing them 
to you with a sympathetic nature. In no place in the 
Scriptures is it recorded that the Savior did anything 
in the way of attempting to inject any of His doctrines 
that He taught into the government or state by any 
legislative enactments, either in their constitution or law. 
He always held Himself and His disciples free from all 
the affairs of the world, teaching that the world was at 
enmity with Him and His doctrine, and would ever per- 
secute it; and yet He never sought the arm of the law 
to protect Him or His disciples. There can hardly be 
a question of doubt that when the ministry attempts in 



MORTALS AND IMMORTALITY. 441 

the least to use the church and its influence to advance 
any poHtical law or principle or any political party, to 
bring into existence any legislation or law or extol any 
of its adherents, it without doubt desecrates the doc- 
trine of God. This can only tend to bring discord and 
destroy the church and its influence in accomplishing 
God's purposes. Its members become disintegrated and 
dissatisfied with each other and the teachings they re- 
ceive when in attendance. Therefore the church of God 
which practices those things, if carried out to their full 
extent, will eventually entirely lose its usefulness and 
become overthrown. No church can use its influence 
in its efforts towards making by law those who come to 
it become the adherents of some political faith or church 
doctrine, or seeking to enact some law of state to rem- 
edy some supposed evil, that might be supposed to exist, 
without hindrance to the spiritual uplift of the church. 
Taking into the church poHtical questions has a blight- 
ing effect upon true devout Christianity, and it has been 
proven and shown over and over again that it is not 
conducive to the highest spiritual interests of a chtuch 
to take into it the affairs of controlHng the world by 
coercion or by the enactment through the government 
of laws to accompHsh the same effect. The only thing 
that you can resort to, to reach errors of this kind, is to 
take your righteousness and purity of life into the af- 
fairs of the world and purify the world by the righteous- 
ness that is within you, by your meekly setting forth 
and supporting all matters that are in accordance with 
God's Word. 

There is a wide chasm between the government of 
men and the government of God. There can be no 
intermingling with them in the least for the reason that 
mankind is imperfct and carnally-minded and the carnal 



442 MORTALS AND IMMORTAUTY. 

mind is at enmity with God, so that man-made laws have 
ever been imperfect and the governments of mankind 
can never be any more perfect than the mass of the 
people who maintain them. They rise and fall and go 
into decay because of their corruption, and receive the 
condemnation of God's government and instructions. 
The governments which are inaugurated by God, in- 
cluding all His laws and His teachings, are perfect, and 
God can not look upon sin or unrighteousness with any 
degree of allowance; and in proportion to the violation 
of God's will, sin does abound, and death and destruc- 
tion of man and man-made governments follow. There- 
fore it is impossible to mix worldly affairs with God's 
righteousness, believing at the same time that you will 
succeed in making man better. These things will ever 
be thus until the Lord Jesus Christ shall come with His 
holy angels and in all His glory and establish righteous- 
ness and love throughout the earth, so that men will 
become so filled with that purity and righteousness that 
they will all be ready to say, *'Not my will, but thine, O 
Lord, be done." 

All the ambassadors of the Lord Jesus Christ should 
so conduct themselves in and out of the sanctuary that 
all their listeners who are seeking purity of Hfe can and 
will be blessed by what they hear from them and will 
be drawn towards the everlasting kingdom of God. All 
listeners should be devoutly impressed by what they 
receive while in attendance upon God's service, so they 
should be brought to feel that they need to become 
better in their Hves and should Hve more closely to their 
Master, enabhng them day by day to become more and 
more like Him in their growth of righteousness, until 
He shall appear saying, ''Come, ye blessed of my Fath- 
er; enter thou into the joys of thy Lord." There is a 



MORTALS AND TABIORTALITY. 443 

beautiful illustration in the second chapter of Revelation, 
which shows plainly how the Lord Jesus Christ wants 
His followers to adhere strictly to the true doctrine that 
He taught them and to permit nothing else to enter into 
His sacred church. It is shown there that Jesus Christ 
wants the church throughout all the world to be kept 
pure and to be used exclusively for the purpose of teach- 
ing His word and bringing it to the minds of mankind, 
so that they may have greater knowledge of their Cre- 
ator; that the children of God should go there for the 
purpose of fully carrying out the commands of God, 
wherein He demands us to seek to know Him daily more 
and more until we become like Him. We can arrive at 
such a perfect state that God will take us unto Himself 
as jewels of great price. God has promised He will give 
unto us a white stone, and in that stone a new name, 
which no man knoweth, save he that receiveth it. Seek 
ye the kingdom of God and His righteousness, reaping 
the reward of eternal life. 



W 



MAR 5 1913 



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